Little Lion Man
by injerannie94
Summary: It all started with Kili's first visit to Kenya, an attempt to try and kick-start his hopeful career in wildlife photography. He was expecting to fall in love with the country, but perhaps not to find a firm friend in his blonde white Kenyan safari guide. When Kili leaves Kenya after a glorious two weeks, he knows he will be back.
1. Chapter 1: Mara

**CHAPTER 1: Mara**

The second the plane dipped below the cloudline, Kili was almost out of his seat, straining against his seatbelt to take in every inch of the country now spread out underneath him. Of course, most of it was an inscrutable black mass, given that it was four AM Nairobi local time, but as the plane sank lower and lower, more and more was discernible by the pinprick light of streetlamps.

After the plane landed (amid a smattering of claps from the few passengers still awake) a lime green coach brought them to the International Arrivals. Kili was almost giddy with excitement as he filled in the visa form and handed over a handful of notes. The man with bloodshot eyes behind the counter, after requesting he lay the fingers and thumb of each hand on the fingerprint reading machine on the desk, handed him back his passport. Kili stared excitedly at his temporary Kenyan visa.

He waited forty minutes for his luggage, examining the advertisements eagerly on the walls: 'Safaricom welcomes you to Kenya!' accompanied by photos of smiling people. Kili recognised a Masai warrior in one of the posters and the phrase 'Hakuna Matata' on another. Kíli pondered what Safaricom was.

Outside in the refreshing air, Kili headed for a man holding an A4 piece of paper with 'Kirian Durin' printed neatly on it. The man took his suitcase, smiling broadly and introduced himself as Alex. He would be taking Kili to his hotel and driving him to the travel agency office when it opened in the morning.

They drove for around half an hour, Alex offering titbits of information about their surroundings as they drove. Kili drank in every mundane detail eagerly with his eyes and ears. Alex helped Kili check in and get his room key, then told him he would be back at ten to pick him up.

Kili sat down on the bed, too excited to sleep even though he knew he ought to. It was six am and he still had hours before breakfast would open. He showered, emptying both the miniature shampoo and conditioner bottles over his dark hair, which clung wetly to his shoulder blades as he set about exploring his room, staring out of the window, checking every cupboard and examining the pamphlets and flyers in one of the drawers. Eventually he settled for poring over his guidebook for the enth time, thumbing the already worn, dog-eared pages.

As soon as it was nine, Kili went down for breakfast, helping himself to a bowl of fresh fruit, a hefty serving of scrambled eggs, three pieces of toast, two sausages, a cup of tea with three sugars and a glass of fresh passion fruit juice from the buffet. Kili was so entranced by the tiny banana, less than half the size of the ones he was used to in England that he didn't notice the waiters and a few other guests staring at the vast amount of food he was putting away.

When he had finished licking the remnants of jam off his fingers, Kili went back to his room and waited impatiently for the minutes to tick by. At ten to ten, he dragged his suitcase down to reception and saw with delight that Alex had arrived early. Kili stared out of the window again for the duration of the drive; now the sun was up there was so much to see! It was like nowhere else he'd ever been before.

Eventually they pulled up beside a row of buildings, one of which bore a hand-painted sign (most of the signs here were hand-painted, Kili noticed) reading 'Tampani Travels and Tours' next to a logo Kili recognised. Alex gestured at the building and took Kili's suitcase out of the car before waving cheerily and saying goodbye.

Kili entered the building, dragging his case, and was waved over to a chair in front of a desk opposite a smartly dressed woman with a nametag reading Gayle. After asking his name and tapping the computer for a few seconds, she printed a few pages, stapled them together and handed them to him. She proceeded to explain the itinerary outlined on the papers for him (even though Kili had read, reread and practically memorised every detail of his trip about a week after booking it) and asked if he had any questions. Kili was bursting with them, but he knew they weren't the kind she would be interested in answering, so said no.

The woman rapped at a window behind her and called something in Kiswahili. Someone shouted back.

A minute later a white man with tawny blonde hair tied back in a loose bun so it was impossible to tell how long it really was came through the door on his left. He was wearing sand coloured shorts, a dark green polo shirt with the company logo embroidered on the top pocket and hiking boots. One look at this man's tanned skin told Kili he was someone who spent a lot of time outdoors. He exchanged a few words with Gayle in Swahili, then held his hand out to Kili with a broad smile.

"I'm Philip. Nice to meet you."

"I'm Kili." Kili shook the proffered hand and as soon as he let go, Philip gestured for him to follow him. Kili thanked Gayle and hurried after him. Philip led him to a storeroom at the back.

"So, camping. I'm guessing you didn't manage to bring any kit with you?"

"Only a sleeping bag." Kili did not mention he had stashed his favourite pillowcase in there as well, the one that smelled of comfort, the one he could fall asleep anywhere with and brought with him whenever he knew he would be away from home for a while.

Philip nodded and pulled two tents from a shelf, two pillows and a sleeping bag from another. He led them into a carpark and slung these and Kili's suitcase into the back of a long khaki green Land Cruiser.

"Hop in."

Kili got into the front seat and peered back at the long body of the car. It had three rows of seats.

"It's huge!" Kili exclaimed before he could stop himself. He was never very good at keeping his thoughts to himself.

"It's a safari vehicle. You'll see a lot of these."

"And… it's all just for me?"

Philip grinned. "Your mother wrote us an email a few days ago warning us to take care of you. We keep our promises."

Kili groaned and Philip laughed. "Trust my mother to ruin any illusions I had of independence…"

"You sometimes see matatus – mini-buses," Philip explained at Kili's questioning look, "They go around the parks too. These ones are great because the roof pops up so you can stand up and get the best view. You'll see when we get to the Mara." Philip started the engine. "So is this your first time in Kenya?"

Kili's eyes were irresistibly drawn, as usual, to the window. "Yeah," he replied. "First time out of Europe actually. Have you been here long?"

"I was born here. I've lived here all my life."

"No offence, but I was kindof not expecting you to be white," Kili said before he could stop himself.

To his relief, Philip laughed. "That's okay. There's not a lot of white people working for tour companies like this one, or at least not as guides anyway."

"Is that tough?" Kili asked.

"Nah. I love this job. At the beginning I got a bit of stick from the other guys, but then they found out I could speak Swahili and I give as good as I get. We're all friendly. Where are you from?"

Kili was a little taken aback at having a question thrown back at him. "England, nothing interesting," he sighed. "My name isn't really Kili, it's Kirian. They said when I was little I couldn't pronounce my 'r's properly so I used to call myself Kili. It used to be just my family that used it, but I quite like it and almost everyone calls me that now. Besides, what kind of a stupid name is Kirian." Kili made a face.

"Coincidence – my nickname is Fili."

"No way!"

"Philip, Fili – you could see how it came about. My dad came up with it, he has a rather annoying habit of being able to make up nicknames and make them stick over the years."

Kili grinned. "Fili and Kili – that is too weird."

"Very weird."

"Is it okay if I call you Fili?"

Philip glanced sideways at the lanky dark-haired boy. He guessed he must have been in his early twenties. He was lean and had a rather scrawny face, but his eyes were full of life and sparkle. As was his personality, apparently.

"Why not," Fili decided. "What the heck."

Kili's smile broadened and for a second Phil- Fili – smiled back, before Kili let out an enormous, sudden yawn.

"Your flight came in early didn't it? Have you not slept?"

"Wasn't tired til now," Kili told him truthfully.

"You'll want to take a nap now then while the road is still tarmac. You'll not have a chance of sleep once the highway turns to the dirt track," Fili said, grinning roguishly.

Waves of tiredness were suddenly washing over Kili. He nodded compliantly and settled his chair back a little before kicking off his shoes and curling up on the canvas covered seat.

…

The abrupt juddering of the car woke Kili some hours later and he jerked awake. His head had been thrown back, and he snapped his mouth shut, realising it was hanging open wide enough to catch flies. He also had the very self-conscious feeling he may have been drooling. He glanced subtly sideways at Phi – _Fili!_ he reminded himself – and saw with no small degree of relief that he was staring straight ahead.

"Had a nice nap?"

"I guess." Kili rubbed his eyes and sat up. "I see what you mean about the road."

"It like this the rest of the way. About three hours."

Kili didn't mind; he actually strangely enjoyed the bone-rattling ride, body swaying as the car lumped over potholes and rocky gravel, swerving around the worst of the dips in the road. It reminded him of one of those machines in the gym that you stood on which vibrated violently, to supposedly release the tension in your muscles he guessed. He knocked his head a few times against the window and he pretended Fili hadn't noticed, though the tiny smile Fili was clearly trying to suppress told him he had.

Kili pulled his camera out of his rucksack, with the intention of photographing some of the countryside around them, red earth and dusky grass studded with yellow-trunked fever trees and spiny acacias, stretching on for miles to touch the foot of swelling purple mountains on the horizon.

"That's a decent camera," Fili commented, glancing over interestedly as Kili checked he had the right lens.

Kili perked up. "I'm hoping to become a wildlife photographer," he said proudly. "That's why I came out. This is my first real expedition, you could say."

"Ah, that explains it. I wondered why you were staying so long. Two weeks is a long time, most people only come for a few days, then move on to somewhere else, like the coast or something." Fili looked almost approving, slowing down the car so Kili could take a few shots.

"I'm counting on you to provide some good photo opportunities."

"No pressure…"

Kili pointed up at the sky. "Look! It's a plane! My god, it's tiny!"

Fili could have laughed at his enthusiasm. "Have you seen this road? Most people fly to the Mara. I have to admit, I was a little surprised you chose the drive."

"I'm on a bit of a tight budget," Kili mumbled. "Hence the camping."

"Ah."

The rest of the drive passed in amicable conversation. By the time they arrived, dusk was on its way and they hastily set up their two tents and unfurled their mattresses and sleeping bags. Fili had also brought what he called a mess tent – essentially a gazebo with three sides closed and one side open. He said it would serve as a kitchen and promptly pulled out several bags of food. Kili gaped and Fili said he'd pulled into a supermarket while Kili was sleeping. Kili blushed.

"The restaurant is down there." Fili pointed. Kili looked confused. "Do you want me to walk you there?" Fili added. Kili's face dropped.

"Aren – aren't we eating together?" Kili asked, crestfallen.

Fili paused. Usually, the guide didn't eat with the clients – and that was fair enough of course, when people came on holiday they didn't need a stranger hanging out with them, eating with them, being around them constantly. And with most clients, he'd had enough of them during the day to not want to be hanging around with them all night too. But then again, people didn't usually come here on their own. Kili struck him as brave, coming out here to pursue a dream career all on his own, having never been out of Europe before. And he and Kili had been getting on so well, it seemed a shame to disappoint him.

"If you want me to, I guess," he replied.

Kili smiled, which only brightened during the course of their lively chat over dinner, but the smile slid off his face at the end of the meal when he saw the bill. The food had been good, but he didn't think it had really warranted _that_ much…

Fili didn't miss the expression on Kili's face as he carefully counted out his portion of the bill, leaving some extra as a tip.

"Don't worry," he whispered. "This place is overpriced anyway. We can do our own cooking, if you want. Although I have to tell you, I'm a guide, not a cook, so you'll be giving me a hand in the kitchen," Fili added as a warning.

Kili looked relieved.

…

"Kili Durin, this is your wake-up call. It is six thirty and it is time to go on safari."

Kili suppressed the desire to groan. "You weren't kidding when you mentioned early starts," he muttered.

"Kili Durin, this is your wake-up call. Are you alive?"

"Yes," he called, reluctantly unzipping his sleeping bag and sighing as he felt the heat flee from his body, replaced by cold air. He stumbled outside, still in his flannel pyjama bottoms and a hoodie.

"What on earth are you wearing?"

Fili looked up. "Good morning. It's a kikoi."

"A what?"

"Like a sarong. And before you ask, yes it is manly to wear one." Fili twirled. It was basically a rectangular piece of fabric, with fringes down the short sides, and a stripe along the bottom, which Fili wore wrapped around his waist like a skirt.

"If you say so," Kili mumbled. He was intrigued however.

Fili handed him a cup of tea. "We can eat breakfast on the road once we've found something nice to look at. There's a thermos, hot chocolate, coffee, more tea."

"Sounds amazing." The hot tea was helping him to wake up, and as his brain clunked back into full alertness, Kili's usual excitement started to bubble. He was about to go on his first safari _ever_, take photos of the animals he'd only read about in books and seen in documentaries. He could barely believe he was about to experience this firsthand, one of his lifelong dreams coming true_._

The sun rose over the blue hills in the distance, its rays illuminating the plains with orange. It was a beautiful light, Kili thought, and his heart leapt into his mouth as he caught sigh of his first bit of wildlife – some giraffes silhouetted beautifully against the early morning light. Next to them grazed a small group of pale brown antelope.

"Those are impala," Fili told him. "A bachelor group. Only the males have horns."

"And what are they?" Kili asked, pointing to another group, smaller with black stripes on their sides above their white stomachs and short swishing tails.

"Thompsons gazelle. I'll be testing you on all your gazelle at the end of the two weeks, so I hope you're paying attention. I call it the antelope challenge."

Kili tried to commit all the animals to memory as Fili reeled them off – but by the end of the day there was almost too many to cope. He had heard of most of these animals, but some were completely new to him: like the tiny dik-dik, with their bottomless liquid eyes; topis, recognisable by the black smear on their flank that looked almost like an artists charcoal thumbprint; and eland, the largest antelope in Africa.

It was just after their first sighting of a lion (a lone male, stalking off into the bush to nap for the hottest hours of the day) that Fili hit a rock on the road a little too enthusiastically and swore as he felt air rushing out of the tyre.

"Bugger, gotta change the tyre." Fili huffed and pulled off his smart work polo, fetching the tools out of the back. Kili got out and watched him. He switched his camera to the film setting.

"And here, we have the Spotted Philip," he stage-whispered, taking inspiration from David Attenborough.

"Oi, watch who you're calling spotty," Fili called in a mock grumpy tone. He pulled a Tarzan pose for the camera, pouting his lips and flexing his muscles. Kili laughed.

"See how it attends to the strange metal box it has built for itself – such a piece of technology requires much care and affection, similar to that it pays to its young…"

In almost no time, Fili had replaced the useless tyre and they were back on the road, Kili almost rocketing out of his seat with excitement when they caught news of a cheetah sighting on the walkie-talkie radio fixed to the car stereo.

…

By the time they returned to camp in the evening, Kili was elated. He had already taken over two hundred pictures, and was glad he had brought extra SD cards.

"Tomorarow, we'll head to the river and see if we can catch any of the crossing," Fili told him.

Kili had read about the crossing, seen it in documentaries, and he was almost beside himself at the thought of witnessing it with his own eyes.

It turned out the crossing wasn't quite as action-packed as television would have had him believe. They waited for several hours to see if the milling wildebeests on the other side would brave the steep bank and the roiling waters, to no avail. As they drove down the river, they saw many carcasses, bloated and whitening, floating downstream. Some were beached on the shallow parts of the river, and splayed, stiff, legs sticking up in the air ungainly.

"On TV, they always emphasise how the crocodiles lie in wait for the wildebeest in the river," Fili said quietly. "But in reality, most of the wildebeest just drown. The crocs don't even need to catch one. Look."

Their car was parked at the top of the river's high bank. They had a good view of the brown swirling waters and the grisly bodies in it. What looked like a sinuously moving log was drifting in the direction of one of the corpses. Kili realised it was a crocodile as it opened its mouth and began tearing at the beast's skin with its lethal-looking teeth. Once it broke the skin, it began pulling out its stringy entrails.

"Charming."

Kili decided against capturing the moment with his camera, and they moved on.

…

He was still having a hard time telling the difference between Grants and Thompsons gazelle, but he could point out most of the others with ease.

Every night before he crashed in his tent, he looked through the day's photos, deleting the unnecessary ones, reliving the day with glee.

For the first few days, Fili wore his shorts and official polo on safari. But Kili had taken a liking to Fili's kikois and asked if he could borrow one. They looked a right pair in their tshirts and kikois, munching on biscuits as they perched on the roof of the car, watching a pack of about ten lions lazing on the grass-covered dunes. Not far away was a herd of apparently unsuspecting zebra. Fili recognised this behaviour – the lions were planning a hunt. He knew it would make a fantastic photo, so he stopped the car and they watched and waited.

Soon their conversation, which had seemed to be non-stop all day, turned to family. Kili had told Fili about his mad uncle Frerin, an avid traveller who mostly seemed to reside these days in Australia (though with Frerin, it was hard to tell) who had been intensely jealous when he found out Kili was coming to Kenya. Fili had already told him about his mother, living in London with her new partner, and his sister, Tauriel, mostly known as Tory, who was also living in London, having just finished university.

"You never talk about your dad," Kili said suddenly.

"I've never heard you mention yours," Fili deflected lightly.

"My dad died when I was thirteen," Kili said softly.

"I'm so sorry," Fili replied quietly.

"It's okay. He'd have loved it here." Kili met Fili's eyes and smiled to show he meant it.

"Do you mind me asking – how did he die?"

"Pancreatic cancer. He had it when I was little and it came back. We knew it was coming. But still a shock, of course."

"Of course," Fili repeated.

"Kind of fucked up my exams, but I scraped through and managed to get my A-levels and go to uni."

Fili tried to change the subject but Kili cut across him before he could speak. "So where's your dad?"

"He lives at Naivasha – it's a lake a few hours north of Nairobi. But I don't see a lot of him," Fili said shortly.

"By choice or by chance?" Kili's tone sounded light. Fili licked his lips and thought before answering.

"Sometimes my dad can be a racist twat," he said finally.

"Ah."

"He's very conservative. We don't get along that well. He's old colonial stock and that makes me sick."

"I see."

"And he kept telling me it was my fault he and my mum split up."

"I'm sure that's not true," Kili assured him quietly.

"Oh, I know it's not," Fili replied contemptuously. "I wasn't surprised when it happened, I was more surprised that my mum stayed that long. I just wish he didn't take it out on me. And as I said, he's very conservative, so telling him I'm gay went down like a lead balloon too."

Fili's heart stopped for a second as the words came tumbling out of his mouth. He couldn't believe he'd just said that to a client, and even if he and Kili got on well, that didn't change the fact they'd only known eachother a few days – but Kili just chuckled lightly and said, "I can imagine."

There was a short silence. "Anyway, he used to own a rose farm but he basically left that to my uncle Bilbo when he came out here to live with us. Now he travels a lot. At least I can avoid him for most of the time," Fili finished.

"Didn't you say you had a sister?"

"Yes." Fili made a face.

"Is she here too?

"No. She went with my mum to England when they split up. We still saw eachother loads though, every Christmas and I used to spend half of the summer there."

"Is she older or younger?"

"We're twins, actually."

"Twins?!" The way Kili reacted it was as if he'd never heard such a thing before. "That's _so _cool! I'd love to have a twin!"

"Everyone thinks its cool until they've got one. Then they realise how annoying they are." Fili grimaced again and Kili laughed.

"I haven't got any siblings. I've always wanted one." Kili sounded wistful.

"We fought like _cats_. I think they were almost relieved when she decided she wanted to go with mum and I wanted to stay here."

"Why did you?"

Fili shrugged. "I just – I didn't want to go to England. My home is here, even if it does mean living with my dad." Fili looked pensive and he stared across the low grassy dunes at the lounging lions. There were a few cubs with them; they seemed more awake than their adult counterparts, batting eachother over the ears as they wrestled playfully.

"He sent me to boarding school when I was eight. Said he couldn't cope."

"When you were _eight_?!"

"I hated it there. Unsurprisingly. But I still stayed when they offered to move me to some boarding school in England. I met someone there in my last two years of school." A rueful smile spread across Fili's face, and he seemed to be full of memories. "Realising I was gay was never a revelation to me, I kind of always knew it. I've never been with a girl, never felt the inclination. I think he was the same. We kept it a bit hush-hush but it was the first time I'd ever been happy at that school."

"What happened to him?" Kili asked.

Fili wasn't sure what was making him tell Kili his life story. He trusted him, he supposed. And Kili seemed genuinely interested.

"He went to uni so we broke up. We parted on good terms though. It was just the thought of long distance was a bit too much."

Kili smiled at the happy ending. He peered out with his binoculars, frowning at the lions. One had appeared to have gone to sleep, lolled onto one side, basking in the sun with its eyes closed. Maybe they weren't going to see a chase after all.

"I think we'd better get going," Fili said. "They aren't doing much. And it's five o clock, it'll be dark and the gates will be closing soon."

Kili reluctantly agreed. They headed back in the direction of the exit. The car seemed to be struggling, and suddenly they heard a clunk and the car jerked to a stop.

"Dammit." Fili tried the engine; the car sputtered and made another loud clunking noise before growling into life. Fili frowned. "That doesn't sound right."

He got out of the car and peered underneath it. He swore. "Shit. Axle's cracked."

"Oh shit." Kili didn't really know what that meant, his knowledge of cars stretched very little beyond his little Fox at home. "Can… can you fix that?"

"No. We'll need a mechanic. And this thing will probably have to be towed out of here." Fili grimaced and thumped the bonnet with his fist. "I'll call the rangers."

When the rangers arrived, they confirmed Fili's suspicions that the axel was cracked and therefore unsafe for driving. They said they would head into the nearest town and see about getting a mechanic.

Fili waved down the next safari vehicle that passed them and asked if they had an extra seat. Luckily, they did, and Kili grabbed his rucksack and climbed in.

"What are you going to do?" he asked.

"I have to stay with the car, at least until the mechanic gets here," Fili told him. "I'm going to call my agency, and they'll send another car for you in the morning, alright?"

Kili cooked some eggs on toast and ate by himself that night. The next morning, as promised, a Tampani vehicle trundled into his campsite to pick him up. It already had a group of Chinese tourists and Kili realised he'd been spoilt to have a whole car for himself. That day they saw a good amount of game, although the other tourists' fancy cameras with their fancy accessories and foot-long lenses made him feel slightly inferior.

When he was dropped off at the campsite that evening, he was surprised to see Fili already preparing dinner, dressed in his usual kikoi and a tshirt. He looked a little tired.

"Fili! You're back!" Kili beamed. "Thank goodness, I didn't think I could put up with sharing a car any more – I'm quite spolit. What happened with the car?"

"Mechanic didn't turn up til morning," Fili grunted. "I had to sleep in the car."

"Oh no!"

"It's fine, not the first time that's happened." Fili seemed a bit grumpy, probably from lack of sleep, Kili thought. He patted his arm.

"I'll make dinner tonight, you just chill."

Fili gave him a grateful smile and flopped down into a chair while Kili busied himself on the gas stove. Unfortunately, his skills in a campsite kitchen were no match for Fili's so he settled with putting some water on to boil for pasta.

He glanced over at Fili again, and was surprised at the brooding, moody expression on his face.

"Is… everything okay?" Kili asked, trying not to sound too worried as he upended a jar of pesto onto the pan of drained pasta.

"Hm?" Fili roused himself from his reverie. "Uh, not really. Manchester United lost again."

Kili made a disbelieving sound that sounded like a cross between a choke and a cough. "_Men_," he muttered, plonking a bowl of spaghetti in front of each of them and tucking in.


	2. Chapter 2: Nairobi

**Chapter 2: Nairobi**

"Thompsons gazelle."

"And that one?"

"Impala."

"And on the left."

"Um… a duiker?"

"Very good. And on the right?"

"… That's a giraffe, Fili."

"Ah, but what type of giraffe?"

"I should have known it would be a trick question," Kili groaned. "It's… a Masai giraffe."

"Very very good," Fili praised and Kili beamed, mock punching the air in triumph. "And seeing as you've passed my animal challenge, I think we deserve a treat."

The car climbed out of the thicket and came to a halt at the crest of a hill. They both got out, Fili walking round to get something out of the boot while Kili stretched his legs and admired the panorama spread before them; green plains stained orange in the rapidly setting sun, little white dots that he recognised as zebra, the tall loping forms of giraffes nibbling on acacias, and in the midst of it all, a vast black mass that was a massive herd of wildebeest. He whistled.

"This is stunning. I can see why you'd never want to leave. I can't believe this is the last day."

Fili got up onto the roof of the car and Kili joined him. He handed him a brown glass bottle. "I think we deserve sundowners. Besides, you can't leave without tasting Tusker. Finest beer in Kenya."

Kili was too polite to admit that he wasn't a beer person, but Fili popped the caps off them both and Kili took a tentative sip. To his delight and surprise, the mild malty flavour actually tasted good.

"I think it's the best beer I've ever tasted," he told Fili truthfully and Fili grinned. He bashed their bottles together.

"Cheers."

"Cheers," Kili echoed and they both took a long swig. It was cold from the electric coolbox it had been sitting in all day, and Kili found that with each refreshing sip, the taste was growing on him more and more.

"So, back to the city tomorrow," Fili said. "Any plans?"

"Not really," Kili sighed. "My flight isn't til Monday, so I guess I'll just chill in my hotel room for a day."

"You've got a day in Nairobi? Why didn't you say so?" Fili exclaimed. "There's no way you'll be just chilling in your hotel room."

"What is there to see?" Kili asked, puzzled. He'd never thought about the city sights, having been too excited about safari to think about anything else.

"Leave it to me," Fili told him, giving him a gentle nudge in the side. "And I can drop you off at the airport on Monday."

"That would be great," Kili said, grinning.

As it turned out, there was plenty to do in Nairobi. They got back late on Saturday evening, Kili having bidden the Masai Mara a sad goodbye. Fili dropped him off at his hotel and told him to be ready by nine the next morning.

"Nine?" Kili wailed.

"Trust me, we need to arrive early to get a good spot. It's really worth it."

As much as Kili liked camping, he enjoyed his first night on a bed for two weeks very much and woke up surprisingly invigorated, despite the hour, and was waiting outside for Fili when he pulled up in an unfamiliar red Land Rover.

"This is my car," Fili explained. "Car, meet Kili. Kili, meet car."

Fili drove them across town to an area called Karen, named after a famous Danish baroness who had come to Kenya to start a coffee farm, and was eventually forced to return to Denmark after her farm fell into bankruptcy. She was a fabulous storyteller and had written many books, including her most famous _Out of Africa_ based on her experiences in Kenya under the pseudonym Isaak Dinesen. Fili sounded aghast when Kili admitted he had never heard of her before.

"They made a really famous film based on _Out of Africa_! It stars Robert Redford and Meryl Streep!"

Kili shook his head guiltily and Fili tutted disapprovingly.

Fili had been right about the need to arrive early, as when they reached the David Sheldrick Wildlife Trust there was already a crowd of tourists jostling before the gate. A little before eleven, the gate opened and everyone made their way towards a roped-off expanse of red earth with a few scrubby bushes dotted around. Kili and Fili, thanks to their early start, managed to get a good place at the front, although crowds of people continued to flock down to the clearing, many of whom had to crane their necks from behind four or five people.

Kili almost squealed with glee as he caught sight of around ten baby elephants, each standing little more than a metre high, trundling down towards the clearing with several green-coated keepers. A wheelbarrow full of huge bottles of milk had arrived and the keepers each grabbed one and the baby elephants immediately ran to their favourite keeper and began downing the milk greedily.

As an announcer explained the aims of the David Sheldrick Wildlife Trust and their work in rescuing and rehabilitating orphaned baby elephants and releasing them back into the wild, the babies romped around, rolling in the dust, pushing eachother over and slurping noisily from the troughs of water dotted about. They were just like human children, Kili thought as he admired them, playful and loving, and mischievous too, as one of the more greedy elephants stole the show by making off one of the milk bottles lying on the ground and appearing very sad when he found it was empty.

The announcer began introducing each of the babies in turn and explaining how they had come to be at the orphanage in the first place; Kili was saddened by how often it was due to human causes, poaching being an especially strong factor. Many elephants had also come to the rehabilitation centre injured having fallen into man-made wells and traps. It was clear that while the conservationists were doing as much as they could, unless people started working harder to stop encroaching on wild animals' territory and realised the danger that ivory poaching was having on elephant population numbers, they were fighting a losing battle.

They ate sandwiches for lunch, then made their way to the Giraffe Centre. After his two weeks in the Mara, the sight of giraffes was no novelty to Kili, but the chance to view them this up-close was very exciting. They stood on a high wooden platform on stilts, so they were at eye-level with the giraffes, and each person was given a handful of pellets with which to feed them. Kili laughed delightedly at the feeling of the giraffe's rough sandpaper-like tongue as it snaked from between its fuzzy lips and wound expertly around a pellet before chewing and swallowing it.

"Try doing it with your mouth," Fili challenged. He put a pellet between his lips and proffered it to the giraffe. The giraffe leaned towards him, stuck out its greyish tongue, which was more than a foot long and snaffled the pellet from between Fili's lips. "Giraffe kiss!"

"Gross!" Kili laughed, but he was curious. He tried to copy Fili and grimaced as a sticky, grey tongue laved his cheek, missing the pellet completely.

"I don't think she likes me as much as you. Looks as if you're the only one with a hot date tonight."

They spent the rest of the afternoon wandering around the various curio shops in the area; Fili was good at bargaining, helped by his knowledge of Swahili, and Kili managed to buy presents for all his family members back home.

"That sorts me for Christmas," he said happily, admiring the beaded sandals and jewellery he'd bought for his mother, the knife he'd bought for his uncle Thorin, and the loud waistcoat made of colourful Masai shukka material he'd bought for his uncle Frerin. He'd also bought himself two kikois.

For dinner, Fili showed Kili one of his favourite restaurants. "It's not a fancy place, but its great," he assured him as they entered a simple looking café with black plastic furniture and vibrant orange walls. "They do these awesome spicy _masala_ chips and the best _nyama choma_ – roast meat," he explained. "The lamb is a bit rare but oh, it just melts in your mouth."

Kili had to admit that in spite of the place's shabby exterior and the thin layer of grease that seemed to reside on every surface, the food was some of the best he'd ever tasted.

"Save some room," Fili teased as Kili put away his third beef kebab. "We're going clubbing after this."

"Clubbing?"

"Well, going to a bar I know. It plays music, so that's probably as close to a club as you'll get."

They migrated across the road to a place with a sigh called 'ZanziBar' ("I know right?" was Fili's reply to Kili's groan). It was filled with a strange motley of people, from Kenyans to tourists to NGO workers enjoying their weekend. Fili ordered them each a Tusker and they grabbed a table. It was dark and the few lights that were on, apart from the ones at the bar, glowed a strange blue colour over the dancing bodies. It was warm, making the beer extra refreshing.

"Come on," Fili called after their second beer. "Let's get cocktails."

Kili looked down at the drinks menu shoved into his hand.

"What's a dawa?" Kili asked; he had to shout over the music, pumping some kind of Afro-pop house beat so loud Kili thought he could feel his heart vibrating in his chest.

"It's a drink – got vodka, honey and lime in it," Fili yelled back.

"Sounds good!" Kili shouted. The drink burned his throat but the honey and lime gave it a sweet but tart flavour.

"I love it!" Kili cried. "I want another one!"

It wasn't long before Fili and Kili were slumped in their chairs, giggling stupidly, their table littered with bottles and empty glasses.

"Looks like my date ditched me," Fili giggled, and Kili snickered.

"That girl's fit," Fili said, pointing at a woman in a brightly patterned dress taking a dignified sip of her coctail at the bar. "And she's drinking a _dawa_. I think she's your type."

"I dunno…" Kili slurred.

"Go talk to her," Fili encouraged.

"Mm… I don't think that's such a good idea."

"I dare you. Chicken."

Kili shot him a withering look. "What are you, twelve?"

"So are you," Fili retorted, giggling.

Kili gazed at her. "I guess she is pretty," he admitted, getting unsteadily to his feet. He stumbled. "Or maybe that is a bad idea!"

Fili could barely restrain his peals of laughter as Kili stared confusedly at his feet. He looked up.

"Are you drunk enough to dance?"

"Yes," Fili agreed heartily, pushing his chair back and standing.

"I've got an idea," Fili told Kili in a low voice as the blue lights flashed around them and bodies bumped against their backs. "Remember those ostriches we saw a few days ago?"

"Mmmmmmmhmmmm," Kili confirmed.

"You remember the mating dance the male one was doing?"

"Oh yes! You reckon that'll work?"

"For sure."

Kili bit his lip, trying to stifle his laughter as he flung out his arms, twirling his fingers with a flourish, then began pacing, bobbing his head and flapping his arms in an imitation of the ostrich mating dance. At least he succeeded in attracting the girl's attention – she looked at him oddly, then slowly sidled away into a dark corner.

Kili and Fili stopped trying to contain themselves as they spilled out onto the pavement outside.

"What time is it?" Fili asked a he stumbled towards his car on the other side of the street.

"It's – " Kili squinted at the mercifully luminous hands of his watch. "… half one. What are you doing?"

"Going to my car?" Fili replied. He fished in his pocket for the keys, rolling slightly as he leaned against the red door.

"You can't drive," Kili giggled.

They flagged down a taxi and Fili somehow managed to relay the address of Kili's hotel. After Kili persuaded Fili to stay for another drink, they bought two more bottles of beer from the hotel bar, which was about to close, and took them up to Kili's room where they flopped onto the bed.

Kili pointed the remote at the television and they vegetated in front of an overdramatic soap opera, occasionally commenting on the abysmal acting and the general lameness of the show. They got the giggles again when a particularly awkward sex scene came on.

The show mercifully finished, to be replaced with an ancient episode of The Simpsons. Fili felt his eyelids drooping. He looked over to see Kili was already half asleep, his beer bottle tilting in his slack hands.

"I should go," he mumbled.

"Y'cn stay here f'you wan'," Kili garbled.

"No, I shouldn't," Fili protested, though he struggled to get the words out; Kili's sleepiness was infectious.

"S' too late t'get a taxi," Kili pointed out. "You sh'd stay."

"My boss will kill me," Fili yawned. He got up and looked around him abstractedly. "Where are my shoes?"

"Th' sofa oe'r there," Kili gestured vaguely and Fili spotted his boots, on their sides near one of the discarded cushions. He sat down to pull his boots on, and leaned back for just a second, closing his eyes momentarily, just to gather his strength…

… until he was jerked rudely awake as a loud sound like a revving engine sounded. He opened his eyes groggily and heard Kili groan, slapping his hand on the bedside table and the clatter of plastic as he turned off his alarm and dropped his phone onto the floor. There was a few moments of silence, then Fili roused himself, shifting to sit up from where he had been sprawled on the sofa and stretched, hearing the joints of his back popping.

"Shit," he croaked. "Why am I here?"

"I told you you could stay last night," Kili told him, eyes screwed shut against the light, the white curtains doing nothing to lessen the glare of the morning sun.

"Crap," Fili groaned. "That wasn't professional."

"Technically you're not working anymore."

"True," Fili yawned. He glanced at his watch. "What time did you say your flight was?"

"Twelve."

"We should get going, we need to leave here in an hour and a half." Fili paused. "Where's my car?"

"Still outside ZanziBar where you left it?" Kili guessed. "We got a taxi back."

Fili swore. "I'll be back as soon as I can."

Fili didn't have enough money to pay for a taxi to take him back, so he walked, the exercise proving helpful for clearing his head despite the dust and smog already thick in the air of the waking city. Luckily he found the red Land Rover unscathed and had time to change out of his manky leather jacket, shirt and jeans into a fresh tshirt and trousers that he found in a bag at the back before he drove back to the hotel. Kili was already waiting outside, fully packed and freshly showered, but still wearing a sleepy expression.

"I couldn't face breakfast," he told Fili as he loaded his suitcase and climbed into the front seat. "Don't have any aspirin do you?"

"Glove compartment," he replied and Kili made a sound that could be interpreted as: "My hero."

"Flying with a hangover, not the best idea," Fili said and Kili barked a rueful laugh.

In spite of the inevitable Nairobi traffic, they arrived at the airport in good time. Fili queued up with Kili as he dropped off his hold luggage and got his boarding pass and walked with him until the security desk leading to the gates. They stopped and looked at eachother for a while, smiling.

"So long," Fili began and they both moved in for a hug at the same time.

"Thank you so much," Kili said sincerely. "I've had the best time – the _best_."

"You're absolutely welcome. Have a safe journey – _safari njema_."

Kili laughed. "I hope so. Although I feel sorry for whoever's going to sit next to me."

"Charming," Fili chuckled, wrinkling his nose. He gave Kili a little push. "Go! Or you'll miss it and have to spend another fortnight here."

"What a shame that would be!" Kili grinned. He gave Fili a wave, reshouldered his rucksack and handed his passport to the woman behind the security desk. By the time he turned around to wave one last time, Fili had gone.


	3. Chapter 3: Facebook

**Chapter 3: Facebook**

Fili had a week of respite before he had to go back to work. He went to stay with a family friend in Nairobi, deciding he couldn't be bothered to go all the way up to Naivasha. He cursed when he realised he'd lost his phone charger and the battery on his cell was long dead.

By the time he managed to buy another one, almost half of his leave was over. He saw he had one new message and prayed it wasn't work: to his relief, it wasn't but he didn't recognise the number. He opened the text.

_I know I said it before but thanks so much for such an awesome time! You were absolutely amazing and I'll remember it for the rest of my life. Hope to see you soon! Kili xx_

Fili smiled. The text was dated three days ago, the day Kili's flight had left and the day Fili's phone had breathed its last breath. He saved Kili's number and quickly tapped a reply.

_You're welcome, it was a pleasure __J see you around X_

He was startled when less than a minute later his phone made the strange clicking noise that sounded like beetles that Fili had set as his text tone, heralding a reply, then clicked again. He looked down at the screen to see two new messages.

The first read: _GOOD GOD, HE'S ALIVE!_

The second read: _Get a smartphone so we can WhatsApp_

Fili snorted at Kili's audacity.

_No. Stop texting me it'll be costing you a fortune. I don't recall ever giving you my number anyway_

Click click. _It's on the Tampani website, dumbass._

And again: _Can I facebook you then? Do you even have facebook?_

Tap tap. _Yes and yes. STOP TEXTING ME_

Click click. _I promise I'll stop texting you if you tell me your facebook name._

Fili resigned. _Philip Baggins_ he sent.

Click click. _I lied. Xx_

Fili opened his facebook twenty minutes later and was wholly unsurprised to see he had one friend request pending: one Kirian Durin. He clicked Accept and, feeling almost as if Kili was racing him to it from the other side of the world, sent him a message.

_Hey. Sorry I didn't reply to your text earlier btw, I only just saw it._

**_That's ok, I assumed you'd be out somewhere exciting that didn't have signal. Where were you?_**

_Actually, I was nowhere. My phone ran out of battery and I needed to buy a new charger._

**_A charger for the pre-2000 Nokias? No wonder it took you so long, you must have had to track down the only shop in the entire world that still sells chargers for those things._**

_…. something like that, yes. How's life?_

**_Good, good… looking through my photos, makes me want to come back now _****_J thinking I'll edit them and then send them to a few people I know._**

_Great!_

**_I'm thinking, I really want to come back out sometime._**

_Oh? Tell me more._

**_Well, actually, I was wondering if you could – when's the best time to come back?_**

_That's a tough question. What are you thinking of?_

**_I'd like to do some more safari for sure, but I'd also like to see other stuff, like maybe the coast or something. Do you have any ideas? (sorry, I'm pretty hopeless – truth be told, my mum practically planned my entire trip last time :p). _**

_January's really nice. That's the summer here, so it's gorgeous and sunny and hot, that's the best time to see the coast._

**_And I didn't see Lake Naivasha last time, I want to go there_**

_Lol. Are you hinting at an invite to my house?_

**_… maybe …_**

_Consider yourself invited then._

**_YAYY!_**

**_I want to stay for longer than I stayed in the summer. _**

_How long?_

**_… is four weeks too much to encroach on your time and generosity?_**

_Just don't make me sleep in your hotel room after we've been drinking again._

**_Hey that was an act of compassion. You should be grateful!_**

_I'll be grateful when I know I won't lose my job for that!_ J

_But four weeks sounds fine_.

_I've actually got time off then_.

_(Or if I don't, I can arrange it)_

**_You don't have to do that! _**

_Stop being so British and accept that you'd love it._

_I won't charge…_

**_(maybe) but I'll be fine!_**

_Please. You'd be lost in this country without me._

**_… perhaps. Thank you for rearranging your life around my second holiday._**

_You're welcome_

Kili beamed. He stared at his computer screen for a few seconds, grinning back at his reflection. He had just come off Skype with Fili, finalising their itinerary and arranging the last minute details. As soon as he had hung up he had gone online and booked his flight. It was official – he was going back!

He opened facebook and somehow wound up on Fili's profile page. His profile picture was of him and a few other lads, all in formal wear. Kili wanted to ask Fili where it was, but he didn't exactly want Fili to know he was stalking him.

Kili felt a pang of jealousy and irritation as he noticed the most recent post on Fili's wall. It was from someone called Isabella Batcheter: 'Thank you SO MUCH Phil for the AWESOME safari – you made it so special J will definitely be back, hoping to see you then! J Xxxx :x "_. _He snorted, making a mental note that some girls used way too many emoticons than were really necessary. _I bet she won't be back_, he thought with satisfaction. "But I will beeee," he sang under his breath.

He started casually flicking through Fili's photos – there were a few of him with clients, Kili recognised the dark green Tampani Travels vehicle. Some were posed shots, families arranged in a line with Fili standing with them. He saw a picture of Fili and Isabella Batcheter: a loathsome-looking girl he thought, with lots of mascara and a pink, glossy smile, wearing hotpants that Kili judged thoroughly inappropriate for safari. Her arm was wound around his waist while his rested politely around her shoulders; _Haha, he's gay! _Kili thought vindictively, then felt bad for hating this girl he'd never even met.

He came across some more photos of Fili in a suit, and Kili decided it must be a wedding, his thoughts confirmed when he came across a group photo featuring a woman in a big white dress and a man in a tux next to her in the centre.

Kili almost guffawed aloud when he came across a photo of a young boy with a shock of floppy hair on his head so blonde it was almost white, naked except for the fact he was caked in red mud, grinning gleefully next to a large dog. Kili glanced down and saw it was from an album called 'Old Times' by someone called Tanya Lewis. The caption read: 'My little nipper, aged five'.

The next photo showed Fili and a girl, both around seven years old. The girl must have been his sister, but her ginger hair came as a surprise to Kili; he had always pictured Fili's twin to be a female replica of him. Her fiery hair, cut into a very straight bob, clashed with her bright red face as she screamed at the boy pulling her hair, trying to push him over. They appeared to be fighting over a football. Kili read the caption: 'Some things never change…' The next photo followed in a similar vein, a blond and a redhead apparently arguing over a huge box under a Christmas tree ('Aren't the holidays peaceful…').

More photos of Fili, ranging from a sleeping baby to a fourteen-year-old sitting in the driver's seat of a large four-by-four. In all the photos of he and his sister, they appeared to be either fighting or deliberately ignoring eachother. Kili wanted to be subtle, not liking even the most hilarious and embarrassing photos, but when he came across one of Fili with dreadlocks, he couldn't stop himself.

**_You had dreds?! _**he sent, alongside a link for the photo.

He wasn't expecting such a rapid reply, but Fili wrote back almost right away.

_How did you find those? Having a stalk were we?_

**_Like you didn't stalk me_**

**_….right?_**

_Lol I can't deny it… And yes I did, I was fifteen and remind me to talk to my mother about taking that whole album down!_

**_Why did you get rid of them?_**

_I only got them to piss off my dad at first. Then they grew on me, but I got rid of them when I was twenty and got a job._

**_That's a shame._**

_That's growing up._

_Can't wait for you to come over in January __J _

Kili said his goodbyes and went downstairs to spill his excitement to his mother.


	4. Chapter 4: Naivasha

**Chapter 4: Naivasha**

"Kili! Over here!"

Kili's face split into a grin as he spotted the long-haired blond waving at him. "Fili! You didn't have to pick me up, I was going to get a taxi!"

"Nonsense." Fili's grin mimicked his as Kili grabbed him in a huge hug. "It's good to see you."

"You too." Kili couldn't contain his smile. He looked around, taking in the familiar sight and gazing fondly at the red Land Rover he could see in the car park. "It's great to be back!"

"Did you have a good Christmas?" Kili asked cheerfully when they were buckled in, Kili's bags slung into the boot.

"Yeah, it was alright. I was working actually, it's quite something having a picnic for Christmas lunch!"

"Oh you poor thing!"

"Well the alternative was spending it with my dad so I think I won there…"

"Why didn't you come to England?"

"You sound like my mother. She wanted me to go, but I had work! And plus, I hate the cold. How were your holidays?"

"A hot Christmas – I can't imagine that," Kili mused, sounding baffled. "It was great – they all loved their presents. And we even had snow this year!"

Fili shuddered. "A white Christmas would literally be my nightmare."

Kili laughed. "And here I was, thinking you were Bear Grylls. Some big man you are, defeated by a few snowflakes."

The drive from Nairobi to Naivasha took three hours, but Kili barely noticed as he and Fili had several months worth of news and to catch up on. He swelled with happiness as he stared out of the window at the lush green countryside, emerald trees and blue skies juxtaposing against the rust coloured earth and making all the colours seem brighter. He'd missed it all, even the lumpy pothole-ridden roads.

They began passing vast numbers of huge greenhouses. Kili stared at them, wide-eyed.

"I told you my uncle Bilbo manages one of these farms. There are lots of them out here. More than three quarters of the world's roses are grown in Naivasha."

"_Really_?"

Eventually they turned down a different road, and turned into a green gate. A guard sitting on a plastic garden chair threw his newspaper aside and surveyed the car.

"_Jambo_ Harrison!" Fili called, and the man's face broke into a grin.

"_Jambo_ Fili, _habari_!"

"_Mzuri sana_!" Fili grasped hands with Harrison, and quickly introduced Kili. They continued down a long drive, flanked with wild-looking hedge, until the narrow alameda gave way to a wide track and an open garden, in the middle of which was situated a house. It was beautiful, with a wide veranda and whitewashed walls and a thatched roof. Further down the garden, separated by a few bushes and trees to give a little privacy, was a guesthouse, which looked just like the main house in miniature. Miniature, of course, being relative – the guesthouse still looked as if it could house a family of four easily.

As the car pulled up, three dogs of various shapes and sizes materialised, flocking around the car and barking madly.

"You'll have to excuse them. They're not very well trained but none of them bite." Fili got out of the car and they gathered around him, wagging their tails wildly. Kili got out, staring at the house

"This is gorgeous Fili!" He looked out across the garden, which stretched all the way to the lake's edge. An electric fence lay between the water and the garden.

"The fence is there to stop the hippos," Fili told him, noticing where his eyes wandered.

"Hippos," Kili breathed with awe.

One of the dogs, an Alsatian by the looks of him, came up to Kili and he reached out and stroked its back gingerly. The dog turned its head, as if following Kili's movements with his nose. Kili quickly whipped his hand back and followed Fili towards the guesthouse.

A man with curly hair the colour of milky tea was sitting on the veranda. When his eyes fell on Fili, his face lit up.

"Fili, my boy, you're back! I thought I heard someone arrive."

"Hi Uncle Bilbo," Fili grinned, accepting the man's enthusiastic hug. "Didn't I tell you I was coming?"

"You might have mentioned it, but you never gave me a date. You never tell me anything anymore!" Bilbo said reprovingly, regarding him with baleful eyes. His glance shifted to Kili.

"Kili, just a friend of Fili's," he introduced himself, holding out a hand which Bilbo shook with gusto.

"Must be a close friend if he allows you to call him Fili!" he chortled. "Very nice to meet you and _karibu_."

"_Asante_!" Kili replied, happy to be able to use a few of the Swahili words he had picked up last time.

"He's the friend I told you about," Fili supplied. "You know? He came last summer?"

"Ah yes, yes, of course! I was about to get a tray out, I believe it is time for tea."

Bilbo went inside, gesturing to the others to follow him. The house was charming inside, with lots of benches and armchairs and puffy inviting-looking cushions almost everywhere.

Bilbo led them to the surprisingly spacious kitchen, where he switched on the kettle and began arranging a teapot and three mugs on a tray. "Oh, lovely, Dina has baked an almond cake – we shall have some of that with our tea I should think! Do you take sugar either of you? And I presume you both take milk?"

"Mister Bilbo!" a woman's stern voice suddenly rang out and Bilbo jumped, turning guiltily to the speaker, who stood in the kitchen doorway looking extremely displeased. "I _told _you, next time you need tea, you leave it to me!"

"I'm sorry Dina!" Bilbo sighed. "It's just that I _can_ do it myself you know!"

Fili laughed quietly. "Bilbo's only been here a few years," he told Kili. "He's not used to having staff yet, and Dina's been with us for so long she's family."

Dina's thunderous face turned to sunshine when she laid eyes on Fili. "Ah, it's been too long!"

"_Habari_ Dina," Fili smiled as he was given a big hug. "It's nice to be home. This is Kili," he gestured at Kili who smiled and gave a little wave. "This is Dina. Also known as my second mother."

They had tea on the veranda, overlooking the lake. They were surrounded by birdsong, many of the calls completely alien to Kili's ears. He drank them in as Fili caught up with his uncle. The three dogs from earlier had settled around them. The smallest, which Kili guessed was at least part Jack Russell, was eyeing Kili with beady eyes. Its ears pricked up hopefully as Kili picked up another piece of cake. He sneakily dropped a few crumbs onto the floor which the dog immediately pounced on.

"Where's Frodo?" Fili asked his uncle.

"At a birthday party at the Oswalds. Nancy said she'd drop him off sometime this afternoon."

"Frodo is Bilbo's son," Fili explained. "Bilbo adopted him a few years after he came out here."

Bilbo's face had perked up at the mention of his son. "He'll be so pleased you're back, Fili. And even happier that you've brought a friend."

Bilbo suddenly scowled at the Jack Russell, now sitting expectantly at Kili's feet. "Toto, don't beg! It's rude!"

…

After tea, Fili gave Kili a quick tour of the main house where Fili said his dad lived.

"Though he's hardly ever here anymore, thank God. It stays locked up for more than half of the year, he's too much of a selfish prick to let Bilbo live here instead of in the guest-house."

The rooms were wide and airy, spacious if a little dusty. There was much less furniture and many of the white walls were uncovered by shelves or paintings. It was clear that the house was much less lived-in than Bilbo's beloved cottage.

"And this is my room." Fili pushed open the door and they both stepped inside.

The room, like the others, was large, and had a huge window over the desk, which overlooked the blue lake. Kili admired the view for a minute before turning to the walls, which were covered in photographs.

The photos were very impressive. They all showed snapshots of life in Kenya, a few of the coast, a few of the city and lots, _lots_, of animals. Kili gaped.

"Fili – did – did you take these?"

Fili glanced up sheepishly. "Uh, yeah."

Kili stared, open-mouthed. "You're _good_," he managed at last.

"Thanks..." Fili, unused to such blatant praise, scratched the back of his neck awkwardly.

Kili was still admiring the photos. "Much better than me," he said finally.

"Don't say that Kili."

"It's true! Look at these! This is real wildlife photography, I mean look at that!" Kili stabbed his finger at a photo of a lion taking down a wildebeest. "That's incredible!"

"It comes with years of experience in the bush," Fili mumbled. "It's luck, a lot of it."

"They're stunning! Haven't you tried to get these published anywhere?"

Fili looked even more embarrassed. "Yeah… a few. I sent some to a couple of wildlife magazines.. and a few hotels asked if they could use them in their brochures. But it's no big deal, really, I've never earned proper money off them..."

"Fili, I'm serious. You should consider doing this as your profession." Fili made a noise of protest but Kili went on before he could interrupt. "_Really_. I've seen the standard they expect, and this meets them by a mile – exceeds them in fact!"

He bit his lip, still staring at the photos. "They're better than mine," he admitted. "I sent them everywhere, to everyone I could think of – no one got back to me."

Fili hated the direction the conversation had taken. There was a long, uncomfortable pause.

"But these could earn you a living for sure," Kili finished finally.

"I've already got a job."

"But wouldn't you rather do this?"

"Sometimes," Fili admitted quietly. "I do like my job but… this is what I love to do."

Kili didn't say anything. He looked brooding, still staring morosely at the photos. He had just assumed he'd been unlucky, that it was bound to be hard cracking into this business – but really, who had he been kidding? He didn't have the experience, or the eye, just a biology degree and a passion for animals that he supposed did do him credit. His photos were nice, yet nothing special. But Fili was clearly a natural.

He managed a smile and looked at Fili, who was watching him with guarded, regretful eyes. "You'll have to show me how you work sometime. I'd love to watch how you do it."

"Kili – "

"Don't worry about me," Kili bluffed, waving his hands to conceal the sadness in his heart. "Really."

Despite the part of him that seemed to have ripped itself out of his chest and been stamped on the floor, despite the sinking sensation that accompanied a shattered dream that had filled the pit of his stomach with lead, he pulled himself together and perked up.

"So, any chance of seeing a hippo tonight? Apart from your fat ass, of course."

…

They ate dinner with Bilbo at the guest house, though Fili suggested they all come to eat at the big house – "Honestly, most of the rooms in there aren't doing anything but collecting dust!". As they made their way to the house, a small figure charged towards them across the lawn.

"FEEEEEEEEE!"

"Easy, Frodo!" Fili caught the child and swung him in the air.

Frodo's coffee coloured skin gleamed in the dappled orange light from the sunset as he took in Kili.

"This is my friend, Kili," Fili introduced. The child stared at him with deep dark eyes sparkling with mischief. He reached out a pudgy hand before seeming to think better of it and burying his face into Fili's shoulder with a coy giggle.

"You've made him shy," Fili noted with astonishment. "That's got to be a first."

Bilbo beamed as they entered the house. Kili, ravenous as always, could have moaned at the spread in front of them.

"This looks _amazing_!"

Bilbo smiled modestly as Fili lowered Frodo into the high-chair at one end of the table. "It was a joint effort. Dina never lets me do anything by myself anymore!"

"Fee," Frodo whispered, tugging at the hem of Fili's tshirt, "come see puppies."

"Puppies?" Fili looked questioningly at Bilbo.

"Oh how could I forget!" Bilbo exclaimed, batting himself lightly on the forehead. "Mamita had puppies!"

"Mamita had _puppies_?" Fili repeated, agog.

"I told you it's been too long since you've been home! Yes, and she had them in the middle of the night, it was not fun I tell you! They're beautiful things, even if they are mongrels, ever so sweet."

"Fee come see puppies!" Frodo crowed, delighted that Fili finally seemed to have cottoned on.

"Very well," Bilbo replied, hoisting his son out of the high-chair and rolling his eyes. "We'll go see them, just quickly, or dinner will get cold!"

They walked down the hall and Bilbo opened the door to a small back room. A beautiful golden retriever, who Kili guessed was Mamita, looked up from her cushy bed in the corner and thumped her tail on the floor hopefully. Five chubby little puppies, which looked about eight weeks old, romped around her in various shades of brown and gold.

"You've done well, girl!" Fili praised, rubbing Mamita's head.

The puppies were milling around their feet instantly, wagging their tails and barking squeakily. Fili sat down in their midst and they crowded onto his lap. A smile immediately cracked over his face as he fussed and stroked each of them.

"They're three boys and two girls. I'm still looking for homes for them," Bilbo told him. "I mean, I'd love to keep one but we can't keep all of them, we've already got too many dogs."

Kili felt pressure on his foot and looked down to see one of the puppies was pressing its two front paws on his shoe, its little tail waving as it strained up to look at him. He squatted down and started petting it.

"What are they?" he asked. "Breed, I mean."

Bilbo pulled an annoyed face. "Well. This is the question. We're not sure who the father is, and it wasn't one of ours, that's for sure, so I reckon its that dratted mongrel from next door! Completely ruins their breeding, and means I can't sell them so I have to give them away."

"Aw, don't be mean to them Bilbo," Fili whined. He lifted one of the tiny dogs, pulling a wide-eyed pouty face to rival the expression on the puppy's own face. "_They're so cute_!"

Kili wanted to laugh at how the sight of puppies melted Fili into a garbling, squealing mess.

"If you like them so much, you can come down and feed them every few hours!" Bilbo huffed. "They're hard work, puppies! And now – I think it's really time for dinner. It's not meant to be served cold, you know."

Kili, whose stomach had been rumbling quietly ever since they left the dining room, agreed heartily. He piled his plate high, and ate seconds of everything: roast carrots, sumptuously spiced chicken, a gorgeous aromatic rice dish, and _sukuma_, a local vegetable similar to kale. He chewed it carefully, and decided he loved it; it kept a slight crunch, unlike European spinach which went soft and soggy as soon as it was cooked.

"Admiring the artwork are you?" Bilbo beamed, noticing Kili's eyes wandering to the canvases lining the wall over dessert, consisting of home-made chocolate mousse with fresh cream. "Those paintings were done by Tory – Tauriel, Fili's told you about his twin hasn't he?"

Fili grunted in assent.

"She's just graduated, combined honours in dance and fine art – and I assume you've seen Fili's photos too?"

"Yes," Kili said quickly. "They're great. He's got such a talent."

"Such wonderful artists in this family," Bilbo said fondly. "I wish you'd let me hang up some of your photos, Fili."

Fili merely snorted.

"You better bring your camera when we go to Tsavo," Kili told him in a warning tone as they walked back to the big house.

Fili chuckled awkwardly. "Alright."

He looked at Kili sideways, relieved. He knew it must have been a blow for Kili to realise his dreams of becoming a wildlife photographer had been effectively ground into the dirt under reality's cruel boot, but was glad to see he wasn't brooding on it or bitter.

"Now just to think of my next big career idea," Kili continued brightly. Thankfully, Kili's constantly sunny disposition meant he could never be down for long.

…

The next morning, Kili was bugging Fili about giving him a tour of the rose farm. Fili led him over to the covered area where he had parked the car the day before. There was a generator there and also a large shape covered by a tarpaulin. Fili tore it off, revealing two dirt-bikes.

"Why am I not surprised?" Kili muttered.

"Hello, my beauties," Fili crooned at them. He gestured. "That one's Tory's. We got them when we turned sixteen." He slung a leg over the bike. "Hop on."

Kili made a mental note to never tell his mother how readily he jumped on a dirt bike, skin fully exposed in his tshirt and shorts, and without a helmet or even shoes. His heart was thrumming with excitement as he wrapped his arms around Fili and Fili launched the bike forward.

They flew down a red dirt path, mottled with stones and holes, leafy green plants stretching on around them.

"These are coffee plants," Fili told Kili. "The berries are green at first, then they go red when they're ripe."

He pulled the bike over and plucked a few berries off for Kili to see. Kili rubbed one until the scarlet skin tore, revealing two beige beans inside.

"You wash the beans and leave them to dry in the sun. Then they're roasted, ground and sent off to Europe and America and other places." Fili glanced around, frowning. "Not one of Dad's best ideas to be honest."

"Why not?" Kili asked.

"The crop's not doing very well – the altitude's too low to grow coffee here. But Dad was convinced it would make us money." Fili shook his head. "We haven't made profit from the coffee in years. Soon we'll have to just tear all these plants out and start again with something else. Hold on!"

They took off again.

Kili was fascinated with everything Fili told him about coffee and roses. The fields of failing coffee eventually morphed into gargantuan greenhouses, white domes stretching on as far as the eye could see. Fili parked the bike again and they walked around, Fili pointing out all the different types of roses and explaining the different pesticides and fertilizers they used.

"We manufacture our own compost to use as a fertilizer. The grossest one is the one made from worms. It's called vermicompost and we make it by plonking a bunch of worms in a bunch of trays of organic matter. The fertilizer is the stuff that's left after they've processed it – in other words, it's worm shit."

"Can I see it?" Kili asked excitedly.

Fili shot him a strange look, then led him over to another greenhouse, slightly smaller and grey, not white like the rose tents.

"Hold your breath," he muttered as they entered. A stench of rotting and a weird, earthy smell hit Kili's nostrils.

"The normal compost is over there," Fili said, voice muffled by his tshirt which was held over his mouth and nose, pointing towards several large pits in the ground where flies buzzed and old fruit skins and leaves could be recognized amongst the mulch. "Those are the worm trays."

Kili went over to them and stared excitedly. Creepy crawlies had never bothered him and nor did the exceedingly, well, _natural_ smell. His mother used to despair at him whenever he came home from school, hair and nails in a state, having more often than not taken a detour through the local park and digging in the ground till he found all variety of bugs, which he kept in grass-filled jars with holes poked in their lids. He'd even had an ant farm (a gift from uncle Frerin) which flourished until he accidentally knocked it off his windowsill and it smashed on the floor; his mother, after declaring an infestation and dousing the entire house in anti-ant powder, vowed never again and decided a dog was a more suitable pet. Kili was just sad that all his little ants had died; they had never meant to do anything wrong.

He grinned over at Fili, who was regarding his surroundings with mild disgust.

"Smell bothering you?"

"I don't mind worms in the wild, but in here they're just gross."

Kili hummed, sinking his fingers into the tray. The soil was warm and wet and squishy. He could feel movement around him, the sliding of many tiny red worms as they slithered away from his intrusion.

"The weirdest bit is that we sell this shit. See?" Fili grabbed a plastic jar filled with dark brown liquid. " 'Erebor Farm Organic Vermicompost Fertilizer, one litre.' We drain it off the worms and ship it." Fili made another face. "Let's go, can we? I'm at risk of suffocating in here."

Kili brushed the dirt off his fingers and followed Fili back into the sunshine.

"Who's that?" Kili asked, looking at a man standing outside one of the greenhouses, crouching over something he held in his hand.

"That's Biff. He was one of Dad's smarter business ideas. He grows snowdrops."

"Snowdrops?" Kili frowned. "Aren't they an English flower?"

"Yes, but almost anything you grow in England can grow ten times better out here with the sunshine and the heat. Biff's, well… a bit of a fanatic. He's grows very rare species of snowdrop and ships the bulbs back to the UK."

Kili looked a bit confused; he'd never thought of snowdrop as exotic or exciting in any way. He couldn't imagine why anyone would dedicate their life to rare species of them. Fili caught his expression. "Yeah, none of the rest of us really get his passion either. All we know is that last year he managed to sell a single bulb of an especially rare species for over £1500, so we're not complaining."

"Over £1500?!" Kili repeated, astounded.

"As I said, one of Dad's smarter business ideas. Although we're not quite sure if he's um… _fully there_," Fili emphasised the last two words, tapping his head. "He's from South Africa and he only speaks Afrikaans. He had a car accident about ten years ago and seems to be unable to pick up English again, though he speaks Swahili quite well now. _Jambo Biff_!"

Biff looked up, his wild salt-and-pepper hair quivering as he nodded quickly at Fili, shouted some kind of greeting back at him, then scuttled back into the greenhouse.

"He's a nice enough guy anyway."

…

Their week at Naivasha was highly enjoyable. They dined with Bilbo every night and babysat Frodo the one night they didn't, when Bilbo was invited to a dinner party. Frodo eventually grew out of his shyness around Kili and was soon happy to crawl into his lap while they watched Cartoon Network and refused to sleep before each of them had read him a bedtime story.

"_Lala salama_, Frodo," Fili whispered, ruffling his young cousin's hair.

"What does that mean?" Kili whispered.

"Good night."

They spent their days exploring the farm, playing with Frodo when he came home from school and taking walks along the lake in search of hippos in the water. Kili could hardly tell the difference between them and the lumps of floating debris on the lake at first, but he was getting better at recognising them, mainly by the snorts they made and the way they twitched their disproportionately small ears; floating plants didn't twitch like _that._

"They're the most dangerous animal in Africa, you know," Fili provided as they watched a group of them a few metres away from the shore, bobbing their heads as they rose and fell above and below the surface, staying underwater for whole minutes at a time. "They kill more people per year than any other animal."

Kili was shocked. "How come?"

"They don't chase you. When they're in the water and you're on the land, you're safe. The water's their safe zone. But they come onto the land to graze, and if you accidentally get between them and the water, they feel threatened. They'll charge back into the water, but if you're in their way they'll just run over you."

One of the hippos they were surveying yawned at that moment, exposing his foot-long, deadly looking tusks. Kili flinched.

"I wouldn't want to get in the way of them."

Kili made sure to give any hippos they saw a wide berth after that.

Fili tried to teach Kili how to ride Tory's motorbike, but after a few too many scrapes and bruises and a broken wrist which turned out mercifully to be a false alarm, they settled for Kili clinging onto Fili's back as they rocketed down the packed-earth tracks, ignoring Bilbo's shrill calls to "Be _careful_!"

Naturally, the puppies remained the centre of attention.

"I can't believe we have to leave you behind," Fili cried mournfully, sitting on one of the wicker veranda chairs, his arms and lap full of miniature dog. It was their last day, and they were taking afternoon tea, as was a daily ritual at four PM in Bilbo's cottage.

Fili's phone broke into a loud chorus of 'I Shot the Sherriff,' at which one of the dogs snoozing on his knee jolted awake; it glared at him accusingly as he scrabbled hastily in his pocket.

"Hello?"

"_Hello Philip._"

"Oh. It's you."

"_Nice to hear from you too, brother dear_."

"How are you?"

"_Fine. Just landed in Malindi. I'm waiting for a cab. You'll be here in a week right?_"

"Yeah, we're leaving Bilbo's tomorrow."

One of the dogs barked, as if demanding Fili's attention.

"_Who's that? Is it Toto?_"

"No, it's one of Mamita's puppies."

Kili heard the faint, buzzing voice almost break into hysterics. "_Oh my GOD Mamita had puppies?! Have they all been sold?"_

"No, I don't think so."

"_You'd better bring me one."_

"Tory, they're not exactly mine to give," Fili told her exasperatedly. "They're uncle Bilbo's dogs."

"_And how is our darling uncle?"_

"Fine."

"_And Frodo_?"

"Also well."

"_Good, good. I need you to pick up some stuff when you're on your way over. The house is filthy but the hoover's broken_."

"Why don't you call someone to fix it?"

Fili listened to Tauriel's excuse, looking unimpressed. "Fine, I'll bring some tools and fix it while I'm down."

"_Good. And also bring…_"

Fili hung up the phone a while later and rolled his eyes. "Sisters. And you said you wanted siblings."

Kili was sitting cross-legged on the floor, rubbing Mamita's stomach as she sprawled next to him. Bilbo was staring thoughtfully at Fili. Suddenly he smiled.

"Pick one."

"What?"

"Pick a puppy. And then pick one for Tory too. They'll be my presents for you both."

"Aw Bilbo, you don't have to do that!" Fili exclaimed.

"I insist!" Bilbo declared. "They're gorgeous things and I can't bear to think of any of them not going to good homes, or even going anywhere I can't see them again! Please, pick one. Which one's your favourite?"

"I can't possibly choose," Fili groaned. He crouched down and was immediately attacked by eager tongues and pushy wet noses.

"Well, I'll make things easier for you." Bilbo lifted a little flailing dog and appraised it. "Aren't you sweet. You'll do nicely. And you –" he picked up another – "can be for Tory. There we go, a girl and a boy. You and Tory can fight it out between you as to who gets which."

"Bilbo," Fili grinned, accepting the puppy thrust into his arms. "You're too kind."

"You're very welcome," Bilbo beamed. "Now! I believe it's time for dinner. You'll want an early night, you've a long day driving tomorrow."

….

Their last night at Bilbo's was thoroughly fun. They'd been shopping earlier to buy the supplies and food they'd need for their week at Tsavo, and had picked up a bottle of Pimms as a gift to Bilbo, as Fili had said it was his favourite. Bilbo, who after all hadn't abandoned all his British ways, was delighted, and they sipped glasses of the summery cocktail on the porch as they watched the sun go down and Frodo threw balls for Toto on the lawn, laughing with glee every time Toto brought it back.

Over a dinner of crayfish stew and couscous, Bilbo and Kili swapped stories about England; it transpired that Bilbo had lived in Devon, not far from where Kili's mother's house was, and they even had several acquaintances in common.

"Oh, I do miss England sometimes," Bilbo reminisced, taking another sip of Pimms. "Our parents lived out here, but I went to England for university and after that I hardly ever came back; until a few years ago, that is, when I decided I needed a change of scenery and a bit of an adventure and came back here! It's in my blood I suppose; I would always have always come back to Kenya eventually."

"And thank God you did," Fili remarked. "I'm not sure whose funeral it would be if you hadn't been here to keep the peace during my teenage years."

Bilbo sighed. "I agree Randy can be a bit… difficult," he admitted. "We didn't get along fabulously when we were young. And the years haven't been kind to us."

"How could anyone not like you?" Kili blurted out without thinking, then reddening at his outburst. He couldn't imagine anyone not getting along with Bilbo, this kind, cheerful man who surely couldn't have a malicious bone in his body.

Bilbo gazed at him with a small, sad smile. "Thank you, my boy. That is very kind. I think – well, he sees me as a bad influence, I suppose…"

"He's a git," Fili interrupted. "A homophobic, racist, git." Fili was glaring out of the window, and Kili took that as an end to the conversation.

"Fili, dear – "

"I know, I know. He's my father and I should love him. But you're his brother aren't you?" Fili snapped, waving off Bilbo's consoling hand. He stood up and glowered out of the window again, as if by staring hard enough he could make the glass break.

Suddenly the tenseness in his jaw and temple relaxed. "I'm sorry. I shouldn't get so worked up. Am I forgiven?" He gave Bilbo a sad, tentative smile.

"Nothing to forgive," Bilbo said kindly. Fili wrapped his arms around his uncle's neck and kissed the top of his head quickly.

"I asked Dina to help prepare a picnic for you tomorrow. If you check in the fridge you'll find some samosas and hummus and fresh bread, that's all for you – don't forget to take it with you tomorrow."

"Ah Bilbo," Fili sighed. "You take care of me so well, I might never leave."

"I wouldn't mind," Bilbo replied.

The crickets were chirping loudly when Fili and Kili finally bade goodnight to Bilbo and headed back to the big house. From afar, they could hear the low hacking call of colobus monkeys, and, if he listened very closely, Kili thought he could hear the light ripping of grass as hippos grazed under cover of darkness at the bottom of the garden.

Kili was surprised it was so dark; during the summer in England, the sun would set late and the sky would remain light for hours, but here the sun set before seven every evening, leaving the heat behind. He craned his head upwards to look at the stars, but found his view obscured by the delicate net of thorny branches above.

"Bilbo's gay," Fili said suddenly.

"Oh," Kili replied. Bilbo's statement made more sense now. "Do you mean… is that why your dad thinks he's a bad influence?" he asked hesitantly.

"Yes." Kili needn't have been hesitant, as Fili seemed in the mood to vent. "And another reason to hate him; Bilbo's done nothing wrong. And nor have I. None of this is Bilbo's fault, and it's something Dad would never even try to understand. The bastard."

It went against the grain for Kili to hear someone speaking so vehemently against their father but Kili couldn't think of anything to contradict him.

"And another thing," Fili continued. "James – my boyfriend in high school – was black. That was possibly the only thing he found more despicable than the fact that I liked men: the fact that I liked – loved – a _black _man."

"Oh," was all Kili could say. He remembered Fili's first words about his father: _he can be a racist twat sometimes_.

"Sorry for the flare-up before. You must think I'm a horrible nephew."

"Not at all," Kili replied quickly.

"And sorry for telling you all this stuff. I just need to get it off my chest."

"Don't be stupid," Kili found himself replying. "We're friends aren't we?"

"Of course. But still. Forgive me?" He gave Kili that apologetic smile again, the irresistible smile with which Kili thought he would forgive him for crashing his car, burning his house and eloping with his mother – or maybe not quite.

Outside the door to Kili's room, Fili gave him a quick hug and a warning: "Enjoy your bed for the last night. For the next week it'll be the cold hard ground."

"With at least an inflatable mattress, I hope," Kili grumbled.

"Goodnight."

"Night."


	5. Chapter 5: Tsavo

**Chapter 5: Tsavo**

The next day they were woken by the smell of eggs, sausages and toast cooked by Dina. The Land Rover was packed, the boot lined with newspaper for the dogs and with full stomachs the boys waved out of the window as they shouted last-minute goodbyes.

"We'll be back in two weeks!" Fili promised.

"Have a good time! Send my love to Tory!" Bilbo called, grinning as Frodo started running after the car. He stopped when his little legs were too tired to run any more, and waved at them with both hands before his little figure disappeared in the cloud of dust unearthed by the Land Rover's tyres.

On the main road, Kili fished out a map, and unfolded it. "So, we're here," he clarified, jabbing a finger at the blue blob labelled _Lake Naivasha_. "And we're going to come down here… through the city… to here?" he asked, tracing down a squiggly black line, over the dot marked _Nairobi_ and halting his fingertip over a green area labelled _Tsavo East National Park._

"Yes," Fili confirmed patiently for the hundredth time. "We're going to spend a week there. And then we're going to continue, on _this_ road, to _here_." He indicated towards the coast resting his finger on small dot labelled _Kilifi_.

Kili cackled. "I can't believe we're going somewhere called Kilifi! Isn't it funny how the word Kilifi is kind of essentially a merging of our names? Kili and Fili?" Kili howled with laughter.

Fili didn't seem as impressed as Kili was by this grand discovery. He grunted.

"Fiiiiliiiii," Kili chanted. Fili looked round to see Kili's face concealed behind his huge camera. It flashed, almost blinding him.

"Kili, I'm driving, you nutcase!"

"Just cos I'm not as good as you doesn't mean I can't take pictures too," Kili retorted in an annoyingly sing-song voice. He paused. "Maybe I should go into poetry."

"Please don't."

Kili responded by blowing a loud rude raspberry.

"Did you have cocaine for breakfast? I've never seen you so hyper." Then he spied the two empty bags of Skittles on the floor by Kili's feet and groaned inwardly. Fili had made a mental note to always watch carefully what Kili put in the shopping trolley.

Kili was suspiciously silent for a few minutes; when Fili managed to tear his eyes off the road to glance at him, he saw Kili was pulling faces at himself in the lens.

"Hey Fili, _selfieee!_"

This was going to be a long journey.

…

Unlike at the Masai Mara, this time they were staying in a campsite situated within the park boundaries. After entering at the main gate, it was a fair drive to get to the campsite and after getting lost a few times, they arrived late, the light fading fast as they hastily erected their tent. Fili hadn't bothered to bring the mess tent this time, so they set up the gas stove outside and cooked and ate under the stars. The puppies, happy at a chance to stretch their legs after such a long journey, romped around them, though they soon tired themselves out and fell asleep at Fili's feet. They couldn't possibly bring them on safari with them, but the owner of the campsite promised to keep an eye on the dogs during the day while they were away.

It was an early start as usual the next morning.

"Time to get up," Fili greeted, rolling over in his sleeping bag and punching Kili in the arm. "I'm going to make some tea."

Kili snuggled back into his mattress for as long as he could (which was until Fili kicked his side of the tent as a reminder to get up), then drowsily pulled on his clothes and went outside.

"Good morning."

"It's hardly morning, it's still dark," Kili mumbled, rubbing his eye and yawning.

"You never really got the hang of early starts did you?"

Kili didn't bother to reply.

…

Fili was delighted to see that Kili remembered the names of almost all of the animals Fili had shown him in the Mara.

"_Simba!_" Kili cried, pointing as a tiny cub suddenly ambled across the road in front of the car. Fili slammed on the breaks just in time to avoid crushing the cub, which had stopped in the middle of the road for a curious look at them before bounding back into the long grass and disappearing from view.

Fili looked at him. "You didn't tell me you were learning Swahili!"

"I'm not. I watched 'The Lion King' on the plane." He looked pleased however. "_Pumba!" _he tried as a group of warthogs flinched at the sight of the car and raced away, surprisingly quickly, into the shelter of the long grass.

"Contrary to popular belief, _pumba_ is not how you say warthog. It's _ngiri._"

But Kili wasn't listening. "_When I-I was a young wartho-o-o-g…!_" he belted out.

Fili groaned. "No! Not that song! If you knew how many people sing that, you would realise how unfunny it is!"

Kili did not stop singing, pelting headlong into an out-of-tune chorus of 'Hakuna Matata,' ignoring Fili's mutinous mutterings.

"Be sure to expect retribution," he threatened in an undertone as Kili's voice swelled in volume in anticipation of the last "_Hakuuuna Mata-taaaaaa!"_.

Kili, having completed his brutal rendition, finally stopped singing. He looked over to Fili, staring ahead of him with a grumpy expression on his face.

He scanned the grass outside the window. "There should be a mother around here somewhere, shouldn't there?"

"Should be… but she could have left them to go hunting. Or to escape your horrible song." Fili restarted the car and they moved on.

"How did you say warthog again?"

"I'm not telling you. You're not interested."

"Come on Fili," Kili wheedled. "Stop sulking. Really. I want to learn. So tell me, again… _giri_?"

"_Ngiri_," Fili corrected, relenting. "Not to be confused with _nyati_, which means buffalo…"

…

Kili always wondered how Fili managed to whip up such astounding meals while they were camping, given his limited toolkit of a few knives, a tin opener and a portable gas cooker. Tonight however, Fili was taking a more rustic approach, wrapping potatoes in tinfoil and sticking them in the hot embers of the fire to cook.

"How long will they take?" Kili asked.

"Only about an hour."

"An _hour_? But I'm famished!" Kili wailed. "We should make smores," he decided suddenly.

"Smores?" Kili's eyes widened at the confused look on Fili's face. "Don't tell me you've never heard of _smores_!"

"What are they?" he asked cautiously. He knew enough about Kili's dietary habits to be wary when he suggested something new; Kili had made him a marmite sandwich once, after his assurances that 'yeast extract' tasted better than it sounded. Fili still hadn't forgotten how he'd almost thrown up and spent the rest of the day feeling queasy.

"You take a marshmallow," Kili was explaining enthusiastically. "And you toast it till its all hot and gooey and melted, then you sandwich it between two crackers with a square of chocolate in the middle. It's even better if you use chocolate digestives instead of the crackers, Fili you've got to try one!"

Kili bounded towards the car and returned with a plastic bag, fishing out two packets of biscuits and a sack of marshmallows, then beginning to hunt on the ground for decent-looking sticks. Fili goggled at him, reminding himself again to always watch Kili when they were in the supermarket.

"Dessert before dinner?" Fili protested weakly as Kili shoved a stick, topped with a highly unnatural-looking pink and green striped marshmallow.

"Don't be so square." Kili grinned, popping a marshmallow into his mouth before commencing to toast one. "You can't trash it til you've tried it."

Fili dubiously waited till his marshmallow had started to crisp on the outside, having learned from Kili's mistake of putting it too close to the flames and succeeding in setting it on fire. He eyed the marshmallow-digestive sandwich for a while before finally sinking his teeth into the sweet treat.

The puckered-lipped face he made had Kili cracking up on the ground. "It's not that bad, you health freak!"

"Mm," was all Fili could reply, carefully setting down the biscuit and trying unsuccessfully to wipe the stickiness off his fingers. After his teeth were no longer tacked together, he spoke. "I feel like I have to eat lettuce for a month to make up for that."

Fili refrained from eating anything else until the potatoes were done. After cutting them open and smothering them in butter, cream cheese and tinned tuna ("Calling me a health freak," he huffed, mainly to himself), he shoved them into bowls and handed one to Kili, who wolfed it down in no time. Fili was amazed Kili had any room left given how many smores he had managed to cram into his mouth during the time it took for the potatoes to bake.

Fili sat back with a sigh of contentment, patting his bulging belly as Kili toyed sadly with the now empty marshmallow packet.

"I cooked, so you're washing up."

"You didn't cook! You threw some potatoes into the fire, I'd hardly call you Jamie Oliver!"

"Urgh, fine," Fili conceded, grabbing a dishcloth and following Kili to the tap a hundred metres away from their tent. "Still, I dread to think what you'd have had for dinner if it wasn't for me. Probably just smores." He shuddered.

"Shut up and pass me the soap." Kili, after rinsing off a few more items, looked up and saw that Fili hadn't moved.

"I _said_ –"

"Kili," Fili said in a low voice. "Don't move."

"…why?" Kili replied in a whisper.

"There is a lion behind you."

"_What_?"

"Don't look around. Don't move. They usually won't attack when they're outnumbered."

Kili felt his heart freeze, then resume beating at four times its normal speed. "Fili, what do we do?" he asked breathlessly, still in a whisper. He was starting to feel lightheaded.

Kili's eyes widened and as he heard a stick crack behind him. "Filiii," he whined.

"I'm not sure. Don't panic, but it's just taken a step closer." Fili was managing expertly to keep his voice quiet and calm, but it was hardly reassuring. "Don't move, if you run she'll just chase you."

Kili almost whimpered as he heard the animal take another step closer.

"Whatever you do, stay still."

Kili squeezed his eyes shut and tried to control his breathing. A wet nose touched his hand, before he could stop himself he yelped and jerked forwards.

"Don't run!"

But Kili's legs wouldn't listen as he sprinted back towards their tent, back towards the fire, yes, animals were afraid of fire! He expected Fili to be hot on his heels, but when he turned, he saw Fili was standing in the same place he had always been. Except that he was bent double and shaking with loud laughter. And next to him was a dog.

"JESUS, FILI!"

Fili's face was still screwed up in helpless laugher as Kili marched over to him and shoved him hard. "You almost gave me a fucking heart attack!"

"Come on," Fili crowed. "That was _too good_."

"I disagree!"

"Call it payback for that shocking rendition of 'Hakuna Matata' in the car earlier!" Fili retorted.

Kili resolved not to sing any more Disney songs in front of Fili after that, though he vowed to somehow indelibly copy the Lion King soundtrack onto Fili's iPod shuffle at the soonest opportunity.

…

On the fourth day, Fili shook Kili awake at quarter to seven, and within fifteen minutes they had scoffed a breakfast of tea and toast and were packed, with food of course, into the car and driving into the park. The sun was still low on the horizon and they saw several hyenas scarfing down the remains of a kill probably left by some lions yesterday or last night. Kili grimaced – hyenas had always struck him as exceedingly ugly, even in the forgiving light of dawn.

They had several other sightings, Kili feeling immensely proud of himself when he spotted a pair of silver-backed jackals trotting into the bush fringing the road and a lone male waterbuck almost concealed behind the leaves. They delved into a patch of sparse forest, on the hunt for a leopard. Unlucky in that endeavour, they crossed over a ridge, chatting aimlessly about what they'd seen and which direction they should head in. Fili stopped the car abruptly.

"Oh Jesus."

A horrific sight met their eyes. At the crest of the hill was a carcass, rendered to such a bloody butchered mess that was barely recognisable as a fully grown elephant. It's head was covered in dark red blood from two gaping fleshy holes where its tusks had been hacked and wrenched out of the skull. It's hide was peppered with bullet-holes and stab wounds. Flies amassed horribly around the dead beast.

Kili's head reeled and his stomach roiled. He fumbled for the door of the car and vomited on the ground. One glance at Fili's white face told him he was feeling worse. He seemed frozen, eyes transfixed on the horror in front of them. The smell was beginning to overpower them, the sickly stench of blood heady and oppressive, and every breath he took made Kili want to vomit again. He began to breathe shallowly through his mouth, staring at the radio of the car to stop his eyes dragging back to the butchered elephant in front of them.

This was cruelty of the most brutal kind. Kili had known about ivory poaching, it was impossible not to, but it was only now that the plight of the elephants struck him. The cruel reality of it hit him like a train.

Dimly, he saw Fili pulling out his phone and calling the park rangers, recalling their exact location with a shaking voice. They arrived within minutes, asking Fili and Kili several questions before they requested them to leave. Fili was only too happy to do so. Kili wasn't sure if Fili was really in a fit state to drive, given his bloodless face and the way his knuckles clenched on the wheel as though he was determined to tear it off, but he said nothing.

They didn't speak or stop for any more sightings until they had driven far, far away. Kili felt the car slowing down as the road traversed along a flat plain sprinkled with a few antelope in the far distance. The digital clock on the car radio announced it wasn't even eight. They hadn't seen any other cars. They were alone.

Kili saw that Fili's hands were shaking. His face was still completely bloodless.

"Are – are you okay?" he asked.

Fili didn't bother to answer. He buried his face in his shaking hands. "Sorry – I just – shit, I –" and Fili burst into tears.

Kili crawled over the gearstick at once and wrapped his arms around Fili in a tight hug, babbling soft words and sounds like "Shh," and "It'll be okay"; they had no real conviction and he knew they probably sounded stupid, but it was the only thing he could think of to do in the face of Fili's ragged, heaving sobs, muffled by his hands. Kili tried to prise them off his face and steered Fili to crush him to his chest.

Fili's sobs eventually died down but Kili didn't let go of him for a long time. They were both still in shock. Eventually Fili unravelled himself from Kili's arms and got out of the car. He retched violently, and the acrid smell of vomit was almost a relief, it stung their nostrils and seemed to drive out the putrid stench that still seemed to be hovering in their minds and noses.

"I'm – sorry," Fili muttered, grabbing a tissue from the glove compartment. "It's just – so awful. Such a shock. Never – seen anything like that."

"Don't apologise," Kili whispered, holding tightly to Fili's free hand. "It is awful. I can't believe it."

"I don't think I can stay here any more," Fili admitted quietly. "Do you – do you mind if we leave today? We'll be a few days early to the coast but I'm sure Tauriel won't mind."

"Of course not. You're right. But – " Kili hesitated. "The coast is still a few hours away isn't it? Are you up for the drive?"

"I don't think so," Fili confessed, glancing at his hands. They were still trembling. He glanced at his face in the mirror; it still was white as a sheet. "Maybe we can spend tonight in a hotel somewhere. I don't know. I just want to get out of here."

"Me too."

They went back to camp and had packed up their tents and put everything in the car in record time. They drove to a town called Voi, where Fili found a cheap hotel that happened to have a spare twin room for the night. They dumped their bags and Kili decided to have a shower. As he towelled his hair dry, he heard Fili on the phone to his sister, telling her about their ordeal and that they would be arriving a few days early.

Neither of them really felt like eating, so they went for a walk in the town with the dogs instead. There wasn't a huge amount to see, so they eventually ducked into a café. They sipped their drinks silently, passion fruit juice for Kili and mango for Fili. They made their way back to the hotel where Fili tried to sleep, and Kili tried to immerse himself unsuccessfully in a book. The horrible image from that morning refused to leave him alone, and judging from Fili's tense breathing and the way his eyes were closed just a little too tightly, it was on the forefront of his mind as well.

They had dinner in the hotel restaurant, leaving the dogs in the back of the car with a few blankets, some food and a bucket of water. They both agreed to an early night, and Kili fell asleep at once.

When he woke up the next morning, Kili saw that Fili hadn't seemed to share his exhaustion. His eyelids were drooping and his eyes had faint shadows underneath him. Despite his insomnia, he insisted he would be fine to drive and after a few coffees and an overpriced continental breakfast from the hotel, they started the journey to the coast, which Fili predicted would take around three hours.

The rangers called them in the mid-morning and told them that they had identified the elephant as the matriarch of one of their largest groups. They'd had no luck in catching the poachers; the thieves and their ivory had vanished. The roads leading to the area they had found the carcass were closed and would remain so for a few days out of respect. Kili didn't ask what would happen to the body.

They listened to the radio for most of the journey, overzealous presenters and tacky machine music doing nothing to stimulate a conversation between the two. It occurred to Kili that despite the fact that they had barely talked since yesterday morning, he felt closer to Fili than ever.

Unprecedented traffic elongated their journey by an hour, and it was past lunchtime by the time they reached Kilifi. Kili could smell salt and the sky was an abundant, startling blue. Kili caught glimpses of the sea through tree trunks and palm fronds.

Fili departed from the main road, taking off down a sandy track and pulling up to a whitewashed villa built in a similar style as the house in Naivasha, except for the arched windows fitted with wooden shutters. A sign by the door read _Nyumba Amani_ – peace house.

"Home sweet home. I'm ravenous."

"Same."

They got out of the car just as a girl appeared at the front door. She looked as if she had just come in from the beach, wearing a black bikini with a knee-length leaf-printed kaftan thrown over it. She had long straight red hair that went down to her waist and her face looked concerned as her eyes settled on her brother.

Fili managed a weak smile. "Hey Tory."

She ran and hugged him fiercely though tenderly. "I'm so sorry," she said quietly. "How are you?"

"Dealing," was all Fili replied. They held eachother tightly for another minute before pulling away and Tauriel's eyes fell on Kili. She almost did a double-take.

"I'm Kili, nice to meet you," he said, holding out a hand. She waved it away with a laugh.

"I do hugs, not handshakes!" she said, pulling him too into a hug. "Nice to meet you too." She let go of him and turned to her brother. "How's everyone, how's uncle Bilbo, how's Frodo?"

"Hyper and growing too fast. Speaking of… Bilbo's given each of us a little present."

Fili opened the boot and out spilled the two highly excitable puppies. Tauriel let out a shriek.

"Oh my god, they're _gorgeous_!" She immediately scooped one up and admired it with the glee only girls faced with puppies can summon. "So _precious_!"

Fili rolled his eyes, reaching down to pet the other puppy, who looked bewildered and hurt at being neglected from Tauriel's continuing praise: "_Precious_! So beautiful and _precious_!"

"For God's sake Tory, it's only a puppy!"

"_Precious! Precious _little_ mite!_" She looked up, beaming. "I know! I'll call him Precious!"

"You're not serious – _Precious_?!"

"Why not?"

"It's a boy!"

"So?"

"Seriously? Precious?"

Tauriel's eyes gleamed, and she gripped the puppy closer to myself. "His name is Precious, Fili!"

Kili had a distinct impression she had done that only to spite him, but made no comment. Until now, he had thought that Fili was exaggerating when he said he and Tauriel fought like cats, though he was quickly starting to rethink this assumption. He started to unload the bags from the car as the siblings continued arguing over Tauriel's choice of name for the puppy.

"Don't worry," he said to the remaining dog, who seemed to look up at him hopefully. "You'll get a name too – though hopefully it won't be as awful as Precious."

"Fine!" he heard Fili saying loudly as he entered the house. "Fine! You know what – I'm naming my dog Arnold!"

"Don't be stupid Fili, she's a girl!"

Fili scooped up the dog and held her to his chest. "Arnold," he crooned. "Suits you."

Kili, relieved for a distraction at last, tried hard not to roll his eyes and snigger at the ridiculousness of it all.


	6. Chapter 6: Kilifi

**Chapter 6: Kilifi**

Kili opened his eyes when the blazing sunshine outside proved too strong to ignore any longer. His room was light and airy, with whitewashed walls just like the rest of the house, and wooden beams crossing the high ceiling. He was glad of the ceiling fan whirring above him, as the night had been almost too warm to be comfortable.

He headed downstairs and saw he was the first up. He remembered that Fili had insisted the night before that he help himself to anything, so made himself a cup of tea with a hefty spoonful of sugar. Arnold and Precious were still slumbering on their pillows in the living room and did not stir as he padded past them to sit on the porch, admiring the view of the iridescent sea, the foamy white breakers on the horizon. He knew they were too far away, but if he closed his eyes he imagined he could hear them roiling and crashing.

"Ew, are you making breakfast?" Tauriel's voice floated out to him from inside.

"Yes. You don't have to have any."

"Thanks. I'd rather have cereal."

"That milk went off two days ago!" Fili protested.

"…I'll take my chances."

Kili's solitude was ruptured as Tauriel skipped onto the veranda, greeting him with a broad smile. "Good morning!"

"Morning," Kili replied, deciding against telling her that she and her brother both said 'good morning' with exactly the same intonation. She bounded over and sat next to him.

"How'd you sleep?"

"Like a log. I conked out before head even hit the pillow, I think."

"That's the sea air." She inhaled deeply, lips tilted in a smile. "I love it out here. It's so beautiful."

"You're so lucky to have this place," he told her truthfully and she beamed.

"You haven't even seen the beach yet. It's just stunning. We'll go after breakfast."

"Morning," Kili said again as Fili appeared through the doors, bearing two plates laden with scrambled eggs on toast and fresh fruit. "Oh, you made breakfast!"

"It'll be your turn tomorrow," Fili told him, grinning as he passed a plate.

Kili moaned with almost inappropriate pleasure as he tucked in.

"How's your muesli?" Fili asked innocently. Tauriel ignored him, chewing her mouthful with narrowed eyes as she glanced shrewdly at Kili's rapidly depleting plate.

As promised, after breakfast all three threw on swimming costumes and headed to the beach. Fili and Tauriel quarrelled all the way along the shaded footpath, and kept snapping at eachother as they lay out their towels on the white sands and stretched out under the sun. Their bickering was borderline good-natured when Kili asked a question he hoped would stop them arguing for at least a minute.

"If you guys are twins, which of you is older?"

"I am," they both replied at once, then glared at eachother.

"Mum never told us," Fili admitted, rolling his eyes. "She said she didn't 'for obvious reasons'. Dad wasn't even there so there's no way we can find out."

Fili pulled out his book while Tauriel nattered away to Kili. He could see he was being excluded from this conversation; but he wasn't feeling very talkative anyway. He was glad of a chance to finally get to grips with this novel – the last few weeks had been one of those times when he found himself so busy he never got the chance to read more than a few pages, so he had yet to be truly hooked by the plotline.

Tauriel sat up, hastily re-tying the straps on her bikini and shooting Kili a wink as she did so. "Come on, let's go swimming!" she said, grabbing Kili's arm and pulling him up with her. "Fili? Coming?"

Fili grumbled and turned his face into his forearm. Tauriel laughed. "Too busy working on your tan, bro?"

Fili glowered at her in reply and Tauriel, still laughing, ran towards the turquoise water, dragging Kili with her.

Fili followed a few more lines of stark white text sitting rigidly on the page in front of him, and then gave up – maybe this was just a boring book. He sat up and turned over. He watched as Tauriel goaded Kili into a water fight. At one point Kili vanished under the waves. Tauriel looked confused for a few seconds, then burst into helpless giggles as Kili suddenly resurfaced to launch his shoulder into her middle and flip her backwards into the water. Fili closed his eyes and settled back down again.

The next time he looked up, they were chatting. Tauriel was draped across the airbed they had brought with them and Kili had his hands on the inflatable, pushing her to and fro gently as they talked.

Fili watched as Tauriel jumped onto Kili's back and they made their way back to shore and wondered. Kili and Tauriel? Given her flirtatious nature, he should have seen it coming. He wondered how he felt about it. He tried to suppress the childish jealousy that threatened to engulf him as Kili and Tauriel flopped down on either side of his towel – Kili was _my _friend first.

"The water's gorgeous," Kili told him. "You're missing out."

"I'm good."

"Maybe we should take the boat out and have sundowners this evening," Tauriel suggested.

Kili turned wide eyes to Fili. "There's a boat _too_?"

"Stop being so surprised," Fili laughed awkwardly. "I believe, Tory, that's the only bright idea you've had all day."

"I'm taking the controls."

"In that case, I'm wearing a life jacket."

"Good choice. You're such a pathetic swimmer I'm surprised you're not bringing arm-bands."

"Remind me when you're leaving and this bombardment on my self esteem will end?"

Tauriel punched him in the arm. "A week Friday. Which reminds me, you're coming with me."

"What?"

"Mum says she hasn't seen you in far too long so she booked you a flight. She knew you'd say no if she asked so she figured if she actually paid for it you'd come."

"Aw, what?" Fili moaned. "But – I have work!"

"Stop complaining – think of me! I have to put up with flying back with _you_!"

"Shut up."

"Please take some goddam pills this time. I'm not having you puking on me again."

"I did not puke on you!"

"You did."

"Fuck off. I can't believe her!" Fili wailed. "Making me go to England in February! How could she be so cruel?"

Tauriel sighed dramatically. "Stop being such a pussy, it's not that bad. Be nice, you didn't even come over for Christmas this year, she is your mother, and for some mysterious reason she misses you."

Kili nudged Fili, who looked positively devastated. "You could come see me," he suggested with more than a little quiet hope in his voice, but before Fili could respond, Tauriel cut across them both.

"Who's up for snorkelling?"

"Snorkelling?" Kili's eyes perked up at once, but he bit his lip as he looked out across the blue water.

"It's perfectly safe," Fili assured him.

"There's not like… sharks or anything, right?"

Fili regarded him with baleful cobalt eyes. "Would I lie to you?"

Kili gave him a sideways glance and Fili laughed again. "Okay don't answer that…"

Any fears Kili had soon vanished as he they jumped into warm turquoise waters and swam out where the water got deeper and the seaweed gave way to flat stretches of rippling white sand, interspersed with blocks of coral that looked positively otherworldly. Kili thought the coral was almost as interesting as the fish, some of it bulbous and smooth, some of it crinkled and sharp, yet other parts of it looking like brains, all in wonderful colours he could never have imagined would flourish under the sea. He could have laughed aloud if not for the snorkel stuck in his mouth as Tauriel propelled herself fully under the water, disturbing a school of black-and-white striped Zebra fish (aptly named), which swam panickedly up into his face.

"Show off," Fili muttered next time he resurfaced. He pointed out a tiny transparent jellyfish floating on the surface of the water, almost indiscernible from a bubble, and told Kili to watch out for those.

The milieu of life under the water astounded him: rainbows of parrotfish, angelfish, butterfly fish, huge snapper (Kili couldn't bring himself to feel guilty for the delicious baked snapper they had had for dinner last night), Moorish idols, blue surgeonfish ("_Just keep swimming!" _he chanted in his head, but refrained from singing aloud, remembering Fili's vengeance last time he had sung a Disney song). He had been snorkelling before, and had even taken a scuba-diving course at his local swimming pool, though he'd seen nothing that compared to the rainbow of life below them. He voiced this to Fili and Tauriel when they got back on the boat and lay, dripping in the sun to dry. For once, they were united as they laughed.

"Scuba-diving in the UK? Is there even any point?" Tauriel choked.

"Yes," Kili said defensively. "You know, just off Cornwall you can find fish in some really very interesting shades of brown…"

When Fili suggested asking around if any dolphins had been seen around the area recently, Kili thought he might pass out from excitement.

…

The beach house had no Wi-Fi, and once he was over the withdrawal symptoms, Kili found himself unusually glad – he felt a strange freedom without the pressure of facebook or his emails constantly burdening him.

They wiled away the days playing board games, lounging on the beach, reading and swimming. Kili had long abandoned the thought that Fili had been exaggerating when he said he and Tauriel fought like cats. From the first incident he witnessed over the naming of the dogs (which was still on-going, though Kili still thought it was stupid), their relations did not improve; though they weren't nasty to eachother, it was more like a constant stream of antagonistic banter between them. Kili suspected that while they clearly annoyed eachother to death, deep down it was good-natured.

He also learned that the twins were intensely competitive, especially with eachother. He gave up playing Monopoly with them, as he was always rendered bankrupt in less than an hour, and instead watched bemusedly as Fili and Tauriel oscillated as victors in intensely extravagant, raucous Monopoly tournaments, some of which lasted days at a time.

The twins were also ridiculously good at card games, much to Kili's annoyance. He finally found respite in Scrabble; it was the barely-literate twins' turn to look bemused as they watched Kili construct complicated well-scoring words like 'quizzer and 'ozone', adding up the totals smugly. His finest hour was when he added 'xylo' to Fili's 'phone,' managing to cross a triple word score and announcing that he had beaten them two hundred and seventy eight points to less than a hundred between them.

Kili was less proud of this achievement when they played four rounds of Shithead later, at which he lost spectacularly every time.

They took the boat out for sundowners in the evenings – Kili never fully got over the novelty of the speedboat and every evening regarded it with awe and reverence. He did not trust himself to take the controls, though both Fili and Tauriel assured him "it's easy."

"Honestly, I can barely drive a car, who knows what havoc I'd wreck with a boat?"

They packed a picnic and took the boat out for a day, so Fili could show Kili the rest of the coast. They sailed up to Turtle Bay, an area little to the north in Watamu, so named because of a large rock sitting in the midst of the bay that did indeed look distinctly like a turtle, with a protruding bulbous part of rock that resembled its head. Fili pointed out the many hotels lining the coast, naming them all. They anchored the boat and decided to take a long walk. The beach boys lounging on the white sands immediately jumped to their feet as they saw them coming, offering services like snorkelling trips, proffering carved bits of soapstone and wood, and flirted outrageously with Tauriel. She did a good job fending them off while still maintaining a façade of friendliness.

They caught a _tuktuk_ into town, where Fili said there was a fantastic ice-cream place run by Italians, a promise he certainly delivered on, Kili thought as he finally settled on a pistachio, chocolate and coconut super-sized cone. They wandered around as they ate, and Kili was amazed a the contrasts he saw; the beaches were lined with hotels and whitewashed guesthouses houses not unlike Nyumba Amanibut he saw no tourists walking the streets; it seemed as though they locked themselves away, too shy to emerge for anything but a dip in the sea or a quick walk along the beach.

The town was vibrant with shops and brightly-coloured people. Fili disappeared into a sports shop while Kili and Tauriel, still licking her yoghurt and mango cone (Kili wondered how she could possibly eat so slowly, he had devoured his own super cone in mere minutes) perused the market. Kili stopped at almost every stall, even if he didn't want to buy anything, admiring their wares and their tie-dye clothes. He was eventually talked into buying a lusciously coloured scarf with dolphins printed on it by a vendor with a gap between her teeth and very persuasive smile. He gave it to Tauriel, who gave him a kiss on the cheek in return.

"Where's Fili?" Kili frowned, looking around in time to see Fili emerging from the shop with a huge black rubber ring. "Ah, _no way!_"

Tauriel gasped and seemed about blurt out a question but Fili, second guessing what she was going to say, interrupted her before she could start: "_Alright_, you can have a go but me and Kili go first!"

The hour-long boat ride was much more fun when being dragged along by the big boat, clutching onto the black ring for dear life next to Fili, their crazy laughter drowned out by the roar of the engine and the rush of the breakers as they bounced and bumped over the choppy water.

…

One thing the twins were both good at was cooking – though as usual they interpreted this as a chance for competition. They took it in turns to cook dinner, each trying to gain the upper hand as the meals became more and more extravagant. Kili was only too happy to fuel the competition, pitting them one against the other before he decided Tauriel had finally won with her seafood platter of fresh crab, king prawns and avocado, followed by the most sumptuous chocolate mousse cake he had ever had the sinful pleasure of tasting.

Fili was still miffed about this but grudgingly agreed when Tauriel brought out a bottle of vodka and declared they were long due for a game of never-have-I-ever. Kili was never sure of the rules (were you supposed to say something you _had _or _hadn't _done?) but the game came to a halt as the iPod plugged into the speaker suddenly attracted Tauriel's attention, blasting out a drum intro then throwing itself into a sultry guitar melody.

"Ah, this song is fantastic!" She leapt out of her chair and started swaying her hips. "Dance with me!" She grabbed Kili's arm and yanked him to his feet.

Kili was tipsy enough not to mind, and he laughed as Tauriel arranged his hands on her back and her waist. She grabbed his hips and started swaying them in what she deemed was the proper time.

"Sorry, I'm not quite as good at this as you are," he giggled and she smiled seductively at him.

"_And it's just like the ocean, unde the mo-on_," she murmured, twisting around and wrapping his arms around her, bending her knees and encouraging him to do the same.

"Hell, if you guys bust a tyre soon, I'm happy to let you know that there's a spare wheel over here!" Fili called exasperatedly.

Kili's phone buzzed unexpectedly. Kili smiled apologetically at Tauriel and extracted himself, pulling his mobile out of his pocket and glancing at the caller ID.

"It's my mum!" A broad grin split Kili's face as he swiped across the screen of his phone, and wandered discretely a few metres away to talk.

Tauriel watched him go, then flopped down next to Fili. "He's so fun. It's nice to know you've made such a great friend."

Fili snorted. "You mean _you've_ made such a great friend."

Tauriel huffed. "Not really."

"Much as I admire your valiant efforts, you're being a bit obvious."

"Am I?" Tauriel mused. "Well in that case, he's _oblivious_!"

Fili let out an incredulous laugh. "It cannot be! There exists a man on this earth resistant to your charms?"

"Don't be silly," Tauriel snapped. "It's not that at all."

Fili let a confused expression cross his face for a second. Tory didn't miss it. She snorted. "Oh _please_. That boy hasn't got eyes for me and we both know it."

"Do we?" Fili was still confused.

"It's obvious, isn't it?"

Clearly not, Fili thought, but he wasn't about to voice that thought aloud.

Tory was not fooled. "Fee, haven't you seen him? I don't think I'm… his type."

His type? Fili didn't need to think about what that innuendo was supposed to mean. But Kili… was that possible? Fili abandoned the thought before it made him dizzy.

"I'm not sure if you're right on that front, but don't be downhearted, sis," Fili said in a mock sincere voice, patting her on the arm, then switching to his normal voice. "What about that other guy? Your dance partner in London?"

"You mean Leggy? What about him?"

It was Fili's turn to snort. "Now look who's oblivious!"

"I don't know what you mean," Tauriel retorted quickly, a deep blush calling her bluff as it settled resolutely on her cheeks.

….

"Hey Mum!"

"Hi darling!" Dis sounded joyous at hearing her son's voice again. "How are you?"

"Really good." Kili sighed happily. His feet were taking him down the sand path to the beach, the white stretch luminous in the dim light of the moon. "It's so nice to be back."

"Aw, I'm glad you're having a good time." Dis voice was warm. "I miss you. What have you been up to?"

"Ah Mum, so much… so much… Went to stay with his uncle Bilbo, he's really nice, and… I went snorkelling!"

"Oh that's wonderful. What did you see?"

"Fish.. and… fish…" Kili seemed to be thinking hard. "And… oh wait I saw a sea turtle!"

"What time is it over there, darling?"

"Uuh… bout ten."

Dis laughed. "Kili, are you drunk?"

"Nooo…" But even over the phone, Kili was a hopeless liar. His voice trailed up as he elongated the word, and Dis laughed again.

"Ah baby. If you'd rather get back to your friends I can leave you."

"No, no, it's nice to hear your voice," Kili insisted. He looked down as the waves washed over his toes.

"It sounds like you're having quite a party there."

"Not really. There's just the three of us."

"Who else is there?"

"Fili's sister Tauriel." Kili's face shifted into a grin before he could stop himself. "She keeps flirting with me."

Dis laughed aloud again. "Does she know that's a mission doomed to fail?"

"She's great, really. But I don't know if Fili's really happy about it." Kili's grin grew a little wider as he looked down, dragging his does through the wet sand.

"Haven't you told either of them?" Dis voice sounded surprised. Kili wasn't usually shy.

"It just… kind of hasn't come up."

"Fair enough," Dis amended easily. She couldn't quell her sneaking suspicions about Kili's feelings towards Fili, and felt her thoughts were confirmed at Kili's next words.

"He's coming to England soon. I was gonna ask him if he wanted come over, if he had the time, if he wanted to." Kili's voice drifted into a note of uncertainty at the end.

"You should," Dis said honestly. "That would be lovely."

"Mum…" Kili's voice sounded hesitant.

"What is it?"

"Um… nothing. Nothing. I'll tell you when I'm back."

"Yes. You'll have a lot to tell me, I'm sure."

"Yeah."

"You should get back to your friends, I don't want to keep you."

"Okay. Bye Mum."

"Bye darling. Tell them all I say hi."

"Alright. Love you. Bye."

Kili slid the phone back into his pocket and stared into the sea. He wasn't sure why he didn't say it, but the memory of what happened in Tsavo still brought tears to his eyes. It was a story better told face-to-face. The last few days of fun at Kilifi had helped to drive away the haunting images but Kili was still shaken deep down inside. He wanted to know if Fili felt the same but he didn't want to bring it up.

He flicked a glob of wet sand into the water with his toes, shaking off his dark thoughts. He headed back to the lit-up house, where he could distantly hear the twins quarrelling about who had to do the washing up.


	7. Chapter 7: The Middle of Nowhere

**Chapter 7: The Middle of Nowhere**

The day that they finally had to leave, Kili found himself sad to be leaving the beautiful coast. Tauriel gave them both an enthusiastic hug and Kili promised to let her know if he was ever in London.

"You should come see one of my shows!" she said brightly. "This dance company I'm in, we perform all the time, if you come I can get you in for free." She batted her eyelashes at him and Fili suppressed a desire to roll his eyes.

Arnold barked at them from her prison in the back of the car, reminding them that they had to leave. Fili gave his sister a brief but heartfelt hug, saying he'd meet her at the airport in just under a week to go to England.

Fili was quite quiet as they drove back. Kili wondered if he was tired and would have offered to drive, but he had an automatic back home and the look of the gearbox on Fili's car scared him shitless. Besides, when they hit Nairobi, by which time it was evening and growing dark, the traffic grew and the common sense of the drivers on the road seemed to have disappeared entirely. Kili refastened his seatbelt and gripped the handle of the car door tightly as trucks, beat-up saloons and four-by-fours meshed together, no one seeming to have any sense of consideration for other drivers at all.

"I have to pop into a pharmacy," Fili said. "Need to pick up some meds."

"How come? Are you ill?" Kili looked at him, concerned, wondering if this had been why Fili had been so quiet on the journey.

"Just some sedatives. I – I hate flying." Fili sighed. "Stupid right. I don't mind flying myself in a small plane – "

"What?" Kili groaned. "Don't tell me you can pilot those little planes too."

Fili grinned. "One day you will realise that I am a god in disguise and can do everything."

"Indeed." Kili raised an eyebrow. "But, planes aren't that bad. They say you're like a hundred times more likely to be killed in a car accident than in a plane crash."

Just as he said it, a madman in a white sedan with a smashed headlight swerved recklessly in front of them. Fili had to step on the brakes hastily to let him in before a truck on the other side ploughed past them, honking loudly. "That's not very reassuring right now!" Fili said and laughed. "I know it's stupid. And you're right of course, but - there's just something about it that freaks me out. I keep thinking… this is how I'm going to die. If I don't take pills for it, I'm insufferable."

"It's okay." Kili rummaged in his bag, hungry as usual, and fished out a bag of cashews. "It's just a phobia. Everyone's got one." He offered Fili a handful and he took them, eating slowly while Kili knocked them back without thinking.

"I hope she didn't book me on EgyptAir. I don't think I could do a dry flight… I need tranquilisers and a stiff drink to survive planes," Fili sighed. "I am not looking forward to going to England. A combination of my two least favourite things – flying and the cold!"

"Quit your grumbling for a second," said Kili. His heart was starting to beat faster as he thought of how to phrase what he was about to say; he chided himself for being so nervous. "I was wondering if you wanted to come see me. While you're in England. It's not far from London, only about two and a half hours on the train."

"That sounds doable," Fili agreed. He smiled and Kili smiled back, breathing a surreptitious sigh of relief, though he couldn't say why.

Fili saw a sign for a pharmacy and parked the car. He returned after about fifteen minutes, carrying a small plastic bag and two boxes of takeaway pizza.

"Thank god, I'm ravenous!" Fili watched with amusement as Kili tore his box open with glee, immediately starting to demolish the margherita.

"It's not going to run away."

"Hm?" Kili glanced at him.

Fili shook his head. "You must have been a t-rex in a former life, the amount you eat." Kili didn't reply, but climbed into the boot to pass his crusts to an anxious-looking Arnold.

After their small break, night had properly fallen. Fili frowned as they pulled out of Nairobi, away from the havoc of inner-city traffic and into the countryside. It was still a good few hours til they got to Naivasha and he had been hoping to arrive before midnight. They were on a long stretch of road with no streetlights when he slowed down.

"What is it?"

"Shit. Fuck. I'm such an idiot."

"What's wrong?"

"I was meant to fill up when we were in the city and fucking hell I forgot!" Fili slammed his hands on the steering wheel. "Shit!"

"So, are we out of petrol?" Kili asked carefully, making sure he understood.

"Diesel. But yes. Shit." Arnold whined as Fili thumped his fist on the wheel again and Kili was tempted to grab his wrist before he did it again.

"It's alright," he reasoned. "We'll just sleep in the car. In the morning we can call Bilbo and ask him to rescue us. Or we can see if we can walk to the nearest petrol station," he amended quickly as Fili gave him a look of horror.

"I can't ask Bilbo to _rescue us_. I'm already going to die of shame. This is so embarrassing. I'm so sorry, Kili."

"Don't be," Kili punched his arm lightly. "It's an adventure. But first, I have to pee."

Kili was grateful to the lack of streetlights as he relieved himself after letting Arnold out, who seemed to have the same idea as he did. When he got back to the car, he saw Fili was still in the driver's seat, looking both angry and forlorn.

"Stop worrying, you're the only one who's mad," Kili scolded. "Help me put these seats down."

They flattened the seats in the back and the middle and spread out the mattresses and sleeping bags that were still in the boot from when they were camping in Tsavo. Kili flipped on a battery-powered lantern Fili conveniently kept in the car and hung it off the headrest of the front seat.

"See?" Kili giggled. "Not so bad. Quite cosy in fact."

"Thanks Kili," Fili yawned. "I'm still a moron."

"A bit," Kili conceded, grinning.

Fili stripped down to his boxers and tshirt and crawled into a sleeping bag. "So, where exactly is it you live?"

"Huh?"

"In England. When I come see you. How'm I supposed to get there?"

"You'll have to get a train. It leaves from Waterloo and gets into Dorchester."

"Hmm… How do I get to London Waterloo from Kensington?" Fili asked sleepily.

"You'll have to get the tube I expect," Kili said with a little chuckle. Fili cracked an eye open and tried to glare at him, but he was really too tired to put a lot of effort into it.

"What's so funny?"

"Nothing." Kili loved the thought of Fili, who he often dubbed Bush-Boy in his head, trying to navigate the railway systems in his home country. "You must be knackered. You've been driving all day."

"I'm exhausted," Fili admitted with a sigh. "Frankly, I could fall asleep in the middle of a motorway."

"I'll shut up then," Kili whispered. He flicked off the lantern. "Goodnight Philip."

"Night.. Kirilian." Fili's garbled voice trailed into nothingness. In minutes his breathing had become slow and steady.

"I hope you don't snore," Kili muttered, to no reply.

It was completely dark – Kili had no idea where they were, only that it wasn't in Nairobi and it wasn't anywhere near Naivasha. He made sure all the doors were locked in the car – now would not be a good time to be mugged and have the car stolen. Arnold was curled up on the driver's seat, eyes opening groggily at every sound, then sliding shut again. It was pitch-black outside, the only light coming from the occasional lorry that thundered past, its wares clattering ominously from within as though threatening to fall out, which they probably would somewhere along the way.

Kili wasn't tired yet. He settled for staring at his blonde companion's face, flickering in and out of his view. The headlights of the cars illuminated his face briefly as they passed, but Fili didn't stir. He looked relaxed and reminded Kili of some kind of woodland animal, curled up with the sleeping bag drawn up under his nose, covering his mouth. Kili wanted to reach out and stroke his shaggy-looking beard, wondering if it was soft or coarse; he was immensely jealous, he had always been unable to grow more than some pitifully sparse chin-fuzz, which he always shaved off before he could embarrass himself by appearing in public with it.

His heart thrummed with warm excitement as he thought of Fili coming to Dorchester – finally, he could show Fili where _he _grew up, the place _he _knew like the back of his hand. At that snug thought, he felt his eyelids drooping and he snuggled into his sleeping bag next to Fili, falling easily into contented dreams.


	8. Chapter 8: Hell's Gate

**Chapter 8: Hell's Gate**

The next morning, Fili sheepishly called Bilbo and explained to him their predicament. Bilbo drove over to meet them, chuckling when they saw their sorry state and heard how they'd spent the night, then handed Fili a jerry can of fuel and said he'd meet them at the house. They spent another happy few days at Bilbo's, Kili deciding he could definitely get used to this.

Fili thought it would be a shame for Kili to leave without seeing some of the other sights around Lake Naivasha. He told Kili about a place called Hell's Gate, an escarpment a few miles away from Bilbo's house where it was possible to take a walk in the gorge and camp overnight, and Kili agreed happily when Fili suggested they go and spend his last weekend there. Frodo, naturally, begged to come and was most displeased when his older cousin told him he should stay with Bilbo.

Getting to the gorge involved a long drive through a grassy savannah, dotted with animals. Kili thought they were remarkably tame, barely batting an eyelid as the car trundled noisily past them.

Kili was pleased to be able to use his new hiking boots on the gorge walk, which, after all, he had bought specially for his trip to Kenya and had barely used so far. He had never paid attention to geology during geography classes at school, but he couldn't deny that the rock formations in the gorge, carved out by the annual water flow during the rainy season, were otherworldly.

"They filmed that movie here… ah God what's it called." Fili scrunched up his face and thought. "… Angelina Jolie… Lara Croft?"

"_Tomb Raider_!" Kili exclaimed. "That was here?" He looked up at the towering rippling walls with renewed reverence and Fili shook his head.

"You pay too much attention to that stuff."

"Well, a little popular culture wouldn't do you any harm," Kili teased.

They ate a late picnic lunch, then drove around the Hell's Gate national park for a while. They set up a tent in the early evening at the campsite situated at the top of the escarpment, the cliff looking out on the flat yellow grassland. The grazing animals slowly retreated to the shelter of the bushes and trees fringing the foot of the cliffs as the sun set. Fili and Kili swigged beers and admired the view.

Kili insisted on cooking, and proudly showed off his newly learned skill, gleaned from Dina – spaghetti carbonara. Fili looked impressed as Kili plonked a plate in front of him happily.

"Not bad," he approved. "Better than the smores, anyway."

After dinner they laid out a blanket and spread out, looking for shooting stars. They were lying there for several minutes before Kili asked, "What animals do you get here? Apart from the usual stuff."

"Mmm, apart from gazelle, zebra, warthogs... No big cats, except the occasional leopard. Oh shit Kili, don't look behind you but…"

"Ha ha, Fili."

There was a comfortable silence. Kili shifted on the ground, presumably trying to dislodge some of the rocks poking him from underneath the blanket. His fingers brushed Fili's side, and he pulled Fili's arm off from where it was resting his chest, laying it on the ground and pillowing his head on it.

…

This was weird. Definitely a bit weird.

But not altogether unpleasant.

Fili turned his head a little so he could look down at Kili, but Kili wasn't looking at him. His eyes were turned up to the skies, pinpricks of stars reflected in the giant onyx orbs.

But Kili was straight, wasn't he? He'd never said he wasn't – but he'd never said he was either. Fili thought about Tauriel, her desperate attempts to flirt with him which were seemingly in vain: but then again, Fili reckoned her pride would have accepted no other explanation for Kili's apparent oblivion to her advances. Fili wracked his brain, never taking his eyes off the upturned, beautiful face inches away from his own.

"I saw one!" Kili said suddenly, pointing, jolting Fili out of his confused reverie. "A shooting star."

"Dammit," Fili scowled, though his expression was mostly hidden in the dark. "I'm never good at spotting them."

Kili chuckled. "Look harder."

He shifted his face so his cheek was pressed against Fili's chest. Fili's poor brain whirled even faster. What did this all mean? What was Kili doing? Was it possible –

His question was answered for him as Kili slowly looked up at him, their noses centimetres away from eachother. Fili didn't recall closing his eyes, nor closing the distance between them, but he felt the relief and warmth as his lips closed around Kili's, moving softly, the gasps of their shifting breaths the only sound in the silence up here.

He smiled as he lay back down, winding an arm around Kili's slender body. Maybe Tauriel was right after all – a grudging thought, but a welcome one.

…

Kili had been Thinking. A Lot.

His dream of becoming a wildlife photographer was long over. He was well sure of that. Not only because he saw Fili's photos, but also his own rejection had convinced him; he didn't have what it took, and he accepted that. But more importantly, he had found a new calling.

He could still feel the kiss tingling on his lips when he decided it was finally time to tell Fili.

"I've been thinking," he told Fili softly.

"Congratulations, Kili."

"Shush, I'm serious. I want – I want to go into conservation work."

"Oh?"

"Yes." Neither of them needed to voice what had convinced him into that decision.

"And I want to do it here," he added.

"Oh."

"Do you – do you think you'd mind?"

"Why would I mind?" Fili chuckled. Then he suddenly stilled. "Oh my god," he whispered. "Kili, look. It's a lammergeyer."

A great dark bird was circling the sky, blocking out the stars as it's silhouetted shape grew bigger and bigger as it swooped lower and lower. They both watched it, stunned into silence as it alighted on the scrubby tree a few metres away from them.

"How can you even tell what it is in the dark?" Kili whispered.

"They're so striking," Fili whispered back. "I could recognise one anywhere."

The lammergeyer scanned the area around it haughtily, resting its eyes on the two men for a few seconds. It shifted its feet, getting comfortable, then hunched its wings and tucked its head into its chest.

"It must be roosting here," Fili murmured in awe. "I've never been this close to one before."

Kili found his hand in the dark and clutched it. Fili felt as if the bottom had dropped out of his stomach as he squeezed back. The low whooping calls of hyenas began in the distance, but Fili knew they were no threat.

"We should go inside," Kili whispered.

Fili chuckled. "Worried about the hyenas? You don't need to be, they're scavengers. They wouldn't attack us."

Nonetheless he got up quietly and pulled Kili up with him. He rolled up the blanket and chucked it into the car before following Kili inside the tent, giving the lammergeyer one last look before he zipped it up behind him.

Both encased like worms in their sleeping bags, Kili shuffled over. Fili felt his breath on his face before Kili pressed his lips to his again. "Good night, Fili."

"Night night Kee."

"Kee," Kili giggled sleepily. "That's new."

Fili let the kiss last a little longer this time, though there was a limit to how much further it could go, given that all four of their hands were blockaded by the fabric of their sleeping bags. Kili moved so their legs were touching. They fell asleep to the sounds of eachother's soft breathing, the low whistles of the singing acacias and the cackles of hyenas in the distance, watched over always by the haughty lammergeyer high up on her thorny perch.


	9. Chapter 9: Dorset

**Chapter 9: Dorset**

Kili was waiting at the station. When Fili's train pulled in, Kili spotted him, standing still and looking a little confused among the handful of people now striding down the platform towards the exit.

"Isn't it nice that this time it's _me _the one who's picking _you _up?" he laughed.

Fili's eyes narrowed accusingly as Kili led them to his car, a second-hand silver fox that had seen better days but was still shiny and for the most part un-battered. "You _can_ drive!" he said accusingly.

"It's an automatic." Fili grunted in distaste and Kili grinned.

"How was your journey?"

"A bit nerve-wracking. The London Underground is a nightmare. And…" his voice trailed off.

"Not nervous are you?" Kili teased. He patted Fili's leg. "You'll be fine, it's just my mum, nothing to worry about. And you're here to see _me_, aren't you? You can say hello quickly and then we can barricade ourselves away and not talk to her again! Besides, don't you meet strangers for a living?"

Fili rolled his eyes but seemed reassured. They were swooping past green fields and quaint little cottages neatly encased within low stone walls. By some miracle it was a gloriously sunny day, despite being February. Fili had to admit that he did like England in the sunshine. He rolled his window down, and instantly regretted it when a blast of icy air hit him in the face. The sun in England is _very misleading, _he concluded as he wound the glass up hastily.

The silver fox took a sharp left through an open gate leading to a small red-brick house. They got out of the car, feet crunching on gravel. Kili smirked as Fili shivered. "Bit nippy are we?"

Fili glowered, but hastily rearranged his features into a small smile as a woman with dark hair, who could only have been Kili's mother, opened the front door.

"I thought I heard you drive in. Get inside, before you freeze to death!" Fili was all too grateful to comply.

"I'm Philip, pleasure to meet you," he said politely, sticking out his hand. Dis smiled and shook it warmly with both of hers.

"Lovely to meet you too, Kili's told us all about you."

"Bad things," Kili shot over his shoulder, where he was hanging up his coat.

"Good things," Dis corrected. "Take Philip's coat, you rude child."

"You can call him Fili if you want." Kili snagged Fili's coat on a hook and took off after his mother into the kitchen. "_Mmm_, I smell something good. You didn't tell me you were baking!"

"If I had, none of the rest of us would have gotten any. You're not allowed to eat a single one, I'm saving them for tomorrow." Kili peered through the glass oven door at the rising muffins with a mournful groan.

Dis turned back to Fili and sighed, though she sounded more amused than exasperated. "Sorry Philip, my son does take liberties…"

"You can call me Fili," he replied quickly. "It was a family nickname… that clearly escalated."

Dis smiled. "Alright – Fili. How long are you in England for?" Dis' smile was broad and kind, before he could reply, something furry bashed into the back of his knees.

"Oi! Bella! Behave!" Fili smiled down at the black lab as it sniffed interestedly at his fingers.

"Oh, don't worry, I love dogs. I have four of them at home."

"Four?! You must have a garden and a half."

"Well it's not my house and actually they're not entirely my dogs, they – "

But before he could get any further, he was interrupted for the second time by the doorbell ringing, promptly followed by the sounds of the door opening, a rustling of plastic bags and movement in the hall. Kili straightened up, confused. "Who's – Uncle Thorin!"

"Hello, Kili," a dark-haired man greeted him, just as another head popped out behind him.

"Uncle Frerin!" Kili cried gleefully, leaping to his feet and bounding across the room.

"How's my favourite nephew!" Frerin cried, laughing as he lifted Kili off his feet in a bear hug.

"Your _only _nephew, you mean," Kili chided.

"Then my favourite _and_ least favourite nephew," he quipped as Dis groaned: "Honestly, I don't know why you bother ringing the doorbell if you just charge in anyway!"

Kili sidled up to Fili. "This is a bit of a baptism of fire," he muttered, grinning. "This is my uncle Thorin…" Fili shook hands with the man. He was very tall, with broad shoulders and piercing blue eyes. Looking around, Fili saw the same striking sky-blue eyes on all three siblings; they contrasted vastly with Kili, whose eyes were like burnt umber, almost liquid in most lights. They reminded him of the eyes of antelope he had seen. Thorin had long hair, with streaks of grey at the temples and a burly black beard, neatly trimmed.

"… and this is my uncle Frerin." Frerin shook hands with him, beaming. Frerin appeared to be in around his late forties, with the same dark hair as his siblings although it seemed almost a little faded, as if he spent a lot of time outdoors.

"This is my friend Fili."

"Ah, you're the famous Fili!" Frerin exclaimed, clapping him on the back. "I do a lot of travelling myself, I'm looking forward to hearing all about Kenya."

"Be careful, he can talk the leg off a horse," Dis called a warning over her shoulder, pulling the muffins out of the oven. She tested them, pressing her fingers lightly to their domed surface and they sprang back obediently. Satisfied, she began laying them out on a cooling rack. She winked at Kili. "That's where we got this one from."

Kili was helping Thorin unpack the bags of shopping he and Frerin had brought in. He turned around and stuck his tongue out at his mother.

Eventually, someone made tea and the five of them traipsed into the living room to sit around the coffee table. Kili's house was nice, the furniture well loved but still in good condition. Everything in it looked as if it had earned its place and each seemed to have a story to tell, from the mismatching eclectic cushions on the sofas and armchairs to the hand-painted mug full of fragrant tea Fili gripped in his hands. He stroked Bella absently with one hand as he answered the questions Kili's curious family asked him.

Kili, for once, didn't say much, just grinned at Fili, glad to see he was getting along well with his mother and Frerin at least – Thorin was quiet, but then again, he always was.

Dis looked up as her son sauntered casually back to the kitchen. "Hey! I said those weren't for you!" Kili grinned mischievously around the mouthful of lemon and poppy seed muffin stashed in his cheeks.

Fili had never seen Kili this cheeky. It was rather endearing.

"Come on, Fili, I'll give you a tour of the house," Kili offered, jumping up and taking Fili's empty mug out of his hands and placing it unceremoniously on the floor.

Fili had already seen the open-plan kitchen-dining area and the living room. Kili showed him the tiny toilet concealed in the cupboard under the stairs. Upstairs was a small landing with a bathroom and three bedrooms; Dis' room was en-suite. The house was undeniably cosy.

They went into Kili's room and sat down on the bed. It was small and simply furnished, with a single bed and a pale wooden desk pushed against the window, a chest of drawers nestled in a corner. Fili smiled as he recognised a map of Kenya pinned to the wall next to the bed.

"Sorry about that downstairs. I didn't realise the whole family was coming, and by the sounds of it you'll meet even more of them tonight."

"That's okay. You met my family when you were last over! All the important members of it, anyway."

"What do you think?"

Fili had long decided he liked all of them, even if Thorin intimidated him slightly. He hadn't said a word practically since Fili had arrived, only asking Kili in a low rumbling voice to pass him the sugar for his tea.

"They're wonderful," he said honestly. "But Thorin's a bit scary."

Kili laughed. "He's always like that. He's quite intense, but he's got his heart in the right place. I think he's just quite shy – seems odd doesn't it, compared to my mum and Frerin! He owns a mining company, and Dwalin, that's his business partner, is probably coming over tonight. They've been friends forever and he's a big softy, despite anything he says..."

Fili wasn't sure what that meant, but decided to remember it when the time came.

They were called downstairs for lunch, consisting of hot soup and fresh bread.

"Did you make this, Dis?"

"Yes, I hope you like it."

"It's fantastic!" Fili wondered how all of Dis' talent in the kitchen appeared to have bypassed her son.

After lunch, Dis looked outside and wrinkled her nose. "It looks like it's going to rain later. Would you boys mind taking Bella out for a walk? She needs the exercise and if you go now you might miss the storm."

"You'll need to borrow some clothes," Kili told him, dragging Fili into the hallway and opening a closet. He tossed out two pairs of wellies and held out two heavy Barbour jackets. "Mum and Dad got these years ago, before they were fashionable. Almost twenty years old, but they're still waterproof."

Fili pulled on the wellies and the jacket dubiously. To top it off, Kili hooked a farmer's cap onto his head. Fili glanced down at himself awkwardly.

"I feel like a _twat_."

"Oi, that's my regular Sunday walking-the-dog-outfit you're talking about." Kili grinned as he shrugged on his own jacket and boots.

He led the way down the drive and into the fields. The terrain under their feet alternated between crunchy frost-covered grass and squelchy mud. Fili mentally reiterated his decision never to trust British weather.

They climbed over a fence and on the other side Kili unclipped the leash. Bella bounded ahead, racing the flurry of small birds she had disturbed hiding in the stubs of wheat.

"How's your mum?"

"Fine, fine… She keeps treating me, it's as if she thinks she can persuade me to see more of her if she plies me with new clothes and days out whenever I'm over."

Kili glanced sideways at Fili and noticed for the first time everything he was wearing looked very new. He looked as if he'd had a hair-cut as well, though it was pulled back in its usual scruffy bun. Kili tried to resist the urge to lean back and check out his behind in his new well-cut Levis and failed.

"Can't say I'm complaining. Your arse looks fabulous in those jeans."

Fili laughed aloud as Kili suddenly blushed, and Fili realised that once again Kili's mouth had spoken before his brain had given him permission to.

"You can have them. I hate designer clothes. They cost too much."

"Well, apart from being spoiled to death, which only _you_ could possibly moan about, is it nice being home?"

"Mmm," Fili hummed noncommittally._ Home._

Kili glanced over at him questioningly and Fili tried to explain himself.

"Well, this is hardly home for me is it? Of course, my family is English and in Kenya we white Kenyans stick out like a sore thumb… but at the same time I can't help feel like a stranger here. I hardly know where I stand. I think I've come to realise that home is people, more than a place," he concluded, rather lamely, he thought.

"I'm so sorry," Kili blurted out. "I'm so stupid, should have thought my words through more carefully. I didn't mean it."

"Why are you apologising?" Fili asked in surprise. When Kili bit his lip he realised Kili thought he had offended him. He smiled to show he had done nothing of the sort.

"You can be so silly. I'm not upset. C'mere," he said, coming to a halt and opening his arms.

Kili's mouth cracked into a sheepish grin before he walked into Fili's arms and hugged him tight. He could feel Fili's heart thumping in his chest and wondered if Fili was as nervous as he suddenly was. He looked up at Fili through his lashes and decided to be brave.

It was a sweet kiss, cold lips against cold lips, which blossomed into warmth as they slid over eachother, tender and caressing with every move. Fili wanted to commit every detail to memory, his fingers clutched on Kili's jacket, one of Kili's hands on his shoulder, the other pressed against his chest, vague birdsong in the background, the biting chill that still numbed the tip of his nose and the icy breeze suddenly freezing his cheeks, making him pull away abruptly then smile as he drew Kili into him for a hug.

"I'm fucking freezing," he whispered. "Any chance we can go inside?"

"I raise you one hot chocolate," Kili replied. "if that is agreeable."

"That is _most _agreeable."

Kili served up some hot chocolate with the help of his trusty friend Mr. Cadbury (Fili said yes to whipped cream but _no_ to marshmallows) and walked into the living room with two mugs to see Fili examining some of the photos on the mantelpiece.

"Is that your dad?" he asked softly, pointing at a photo of a blond man with his arms around a child on his knee; the black-haired child was missing its two front teeth and could only have been Kili.

"Yes."

"He looks nothing like you," Fili said before he could stop himself – it seemed Kili's lack of thought before he spoke was contagious. He kicked himself as Kili's face fell.

"Yeah, I know," he said lightly. Fili wasn't fooled and gave him an apologetic hug.

"Sorry."

"It's fine, it's only the truth," Kili said with a low, humourless laugh. "Everyone says it. But I have his eyes though."

"That's for sure." The glittering chocolate eyes sparkling back at him through the glass were unmistakable.

"Interesting look…" he commented, staring at another photo of Kili's dad, bald, and pulling a daft expression as he posed next to Dis.

"He lost his hair after chemo. He first got cancer when I was really small," Kili told him.

"I meant the silly face," Fili said softly, giving Kili's hand a squeeze.

"Oh." They stared at the photos, the figure so full of life and love who now existed frozen in time in home-made picture-frames, tacked with sequins and dry pasta and drawn-on smiley faces, ink bleeding into the grains of the wood.

"They wanted more kids," Kili said, so quietly Fili almost didn't catch the mumbled words. "But the chemo made him… unable to." He turned to Fili, biting back the moisture that threatened to rise in his eyes. "Don't ever be sorry for having a twin, Fili. A sibling was the only thing I ever really wanted in the world."

Fili grimaced comically, trying to lighten the mood. "You say that. Even a sibling like Tory?"

"You know, you really shouldn't complain about Tauriel, you're much more similar than you think."

"What? How can you say that?" Fili cried in not entirely mock outrage.

Kili grinned wickedly, glad to note that the tears had stopped pricking at his eyeballs.

"Such a stirrer, you are," Fili muttered, sipping broodily on his hot chocolate.

"Aren't you boys too old for cartoons?" Dis scolded, walking in on them half an hour later sprawled on the sofa in front of cartoon network.

"It's _Tom and Jerry_," Kili whined.

"And you've had hot chocolate! You're going to spoil your appetites."

Kili gave her a look expressing the sentiment 'Oh, _please_'.

"As if anything could spoil your appetite," Dis conceded with a laugh. "Why don't you go help your uncles in the vegetable garden?"

"No need," Frerin piped up, suddenly emerging behind her, a streak of dirt on his face and traces of weeds under his filthy fingernails. "Is that _Tom and Jerry_?!"

Fili and Kili laughed as Frerin bounded towards them and plonked himself on the floor in front of the television. Dis and Thorin exchanged a withering look, then closed the door to the living room behind them with a pointed _snap_.

An hour later, Dis, who had refused all Fili's offers of help ("Kiss-ass," Kili muttered), opened the door and announced that dinner was ready. As they entered, Frerin immediately being sent out to _"Wash your hands, your nails are _shocking_!", _Fili laid eyes on the most enormous man he had ever seen. He liked to pride himself as being fairly muscular, but this man dwarfed him in both height and brawn. To top it off, his meaty hands and his shiny bald pate were both covered in swirling ink and his ears contained so much metal he looked as if he'd set off a metal detector with a mere glance.

"Hi Dwalin." Kili, far from quailing at the sight of this monster, smiled up at him. "This is my friend Fili."

"Pleasure," Fili said feebly, holding out his hand. To his surprise, Dwalin's grip was firm but gentle.

"Nice to meet you." His voice had a pleasantly lyrical Scottish accent, and Fili felt strangely put at ease, an ease that lessened considerably as Thorin sat down next to him at the dinner table.

"Dis, Dis, Dis, you sit down," Dwalin chided, flapping her away from the kitchen. "We'll get this. Come on Kili!"

Kili got up and he and Dwalin brought the rest of the food through.

It turned out that Dwalin, as well as being a family friend and Thorin's business partner, was also Kili's godfather. Before he left, he pushed a twenty-pound note into Kili's hands with the words, "Look after yourself. Don't spend this on anything stupid."

Kili's face brightened as he thanked Dwalin, then turned to Fili. "When's your train again?"

"Ten."

"Got time to pop to the pub. My treat?"

"I'm pretty sure 'don't spend this on anything stupid' includes alcohol…"

Kili waved a hand. "He's from Glasgow! I'm pretty sure Dwalin thinks beer is good for you!"

Fili said goodbye to Kili's relatives, Frerin and Dis both giving him a big squeeze and parroting brightly for him to come again soon. Fili was amazed at the pub Kili drove them to – it was the picture of a perfect English pub, with a beer garden, an old-fashioned sign with a picture of a deer painted on it, and golden lit-up letters spelling out 'The Mitre.' Fili thought this must have been how Kili felt in the Mara, as they stepped inside and Fili found himself regaled with memories of every British sitcom he had ever seen – the wooden bar, the attractive oak panelling on the walls, the leather-covered barstools, and the shiny dark high tables and chairs dotted around the place.

They ordered drinks and sat at a table, chatting amiably, Fili resisting the urge to play footsie with Kili under the table. He sipped his pint; Kili had ordered him a snakebite. He had never had one before, but he liked it, the tart beer contrasting nicely with the tangy sweet cider.

"I used to work here," Kili reminisced, gazing fondly around him. "In my last two years of school, and all through uni… it was how I saved up enough money to finally come to Kenya."

"You worked in a bar?" Fili raised his eyebrows over his glass.

"Don't look so surprised! I may be hopeless in the kitchen, but I can pour a mean pint. If you ever fancy a liquid lunch, I'm your man. I can whip up a decent coffee too."

"Kili the barista," Fili imagined, and snickered.

Before they knew it, it was twenty to ten. They piled back in the car and Kili walked Fili onto the station platform. They looked at eachother.

"Well, bye," Fili said, outstretching his arms. They hugged.

"I'll miss you," Kili whispered.

"Hm?"

"Nothing."

They could see the train, approaching slowly, its headlights glinting off the metal tracks. Kili smiled at Fili.

"Don't die on the London Underground."

"I'll try. I'll also try not to get mugged."

"You're afraid of getting mugged? In London? When you're from in Nai-robbery?"

"Big cities are all the same," Fili laughed, sticking out his tongue.

The train pulled in and Fili climbed onto it. He lowered the window on the door and waved.

"See you soon!"

_See you when_? Kili asked in his head, watching as Fili's train took off, rounded a corner and vanished from view.

…

The first thing Kili did when he got home was root in the freezer for the tub of Phish Food he knew was hiding in there somewhere. He grabbed a spoon and was shoving it morosely into his mouth, watching reruns of _Frasier_ when Dis found him. She burst out laughing.

"You couldn't be more cliché."

Kili made no reply, only picked at a fudge fish, trying to dislodge it from the frozen ice-cream around it.

"Pass." Dis took the spoon from him and scooped a glob of chocolatey coldness into her mouth. "He's really lovely, your friend."

"_Friend_," Kili mumbled.

"What's wrong?"

"We didn't even kiss goodbye at the station. And I don't even know when we'll see eachother again. Why am I so hopeless, Mum?"

"You are far too melodramatic." Dis stole the fudge fish Kili had been trying to unearth and popped it in her mouth as Kili cried out in protest.

"_Mum_, I had dibs! That was _mine!"_

"See? There's bigger problems in life than boys," she told him brightly.

Kili glared at her mutinously before wrapping his arm protectively around the tub.

"There's always facebook, and skype. You'll see him again soon, I'm sure of it."

Kili half-smiled, leaning into his mother for a one-armed hug. "Who knows."


	10. Chapter 10: September

**Chapter 10: September**

He couldn't pretend he wasn't nervous.

His mother had smiled through her tears at the airport, murmuring things about flying the nest, that it had to happen sometime, and she was only glad he was going somewhere so exciting even if it was far away. She said he would be fine, more to reassure herself than him. His heart had soared as soon as the wheels of the plane had left the ground, although now, staring at the blackness outside the window, punctured only by the tiny blinking light at the end of the wing, Kili's jitters were starting to overwhelm him, breaking out from the little box in the back of his mind where he had squashed them.

The wildlife photographer budding inside him was long gone. He'd scoured the internet, pelted his CV at almost every anti-poaching organization he could find was elated when several accepted him – the next year for him was lined up with internships and bouts of fieldwork training. His biology degree was much better suited to conservation than photography anyway.

He felt now, deep in his bones, that he had truly found his calling. He couldn't wait to touch down and start his new journey in Kenya, the country whose people and places he had fallen in love with after his very first step on those red soils. Every time he reminisced about Kenya he remembered it with fondness and exhilaration. There was so much left to discover, so much more he wanted to explore, to do, to learn, to see.

And now he was moving there. _There_. Hundreds and thousands of miles away from the place he had called _home_ for twenty-two years. There was something definitely slightly daunting, if also extremely exciting, about that prospect. Being out there with a new job, to make new friends, with a new friend – Fili.

He remembered their last kiss very well – had savoured and replayed it hundreds of times in his mind, had relived it so often he wasn't sure if some of the details had been real or if he'd made them up. Whenever he'd gone on walks with Bella and his mother he'd stopped for a second at that spot, closing his eyes; he told his mother it was nothing when she asked, but he was sure the little smile on his face gave him away.

He and Fili had been in almost constant contact since they last saw eachother in Dorset, but Kili couldn't help but feel that their conversations over texts and facebook had seemed very, well… platonic. And they'd hardly ever skyped – whenever Kili saw that blonde face on his screen and heard his familiar voice, he found himself overcome with shyness and utterly unable to have a conversation like a normal human being. Email was safer – he didn't stumble over his words or struggle to think of anything to say and, besides, Fili hated facebook.

What was he expecting? Fili had said he'd meet him at the airport. But then where? Kili's job was in the city – and Fili had said that he had gotten a little place in Nairobi where he could stay. But then what? They had skirted round the issue, never discussing whether they would actually live together or not. And _honestly_, common sense scolded him, even if they did get along like a house on fire, was _that_ really a wise option, given that they'd only ever met twice, really?

He held his breath as the lights below them grew larger and larger, the wheels of the plane hit the ground with a jerk and a roaring filled his ears as the plane lifted it wingflaps and slowed to an eventual halt on the runway.

Contrary to his previous experiences, his suitcase was one of the first off the plane and onto the baggage belt. He only had one – packed to the brim, he'd had to argue with the lady behind the check-in desk to avoid paying a fine for overweight baggage (he'd evaded it by stepping on the scales himself to prove he was in fact underweight; the grumpy check-in lady, unable to find a flaw in his argument, grudgingly allowed his luggage to pass through, after pointedly slapping an 'OVERWEIGHT' sticker onto its side).

His heart was beating hard as he made his way out of the departure terminals, past customs to the International Arrivals. He wondered if it would be awkward, if they would hug. Should he kiss him in greeting? Or would that be too forward? It had been almost eight months since they had seen eachother after all. Fili could have found someone else for all he knew. They hadn't made any promises.

Fili spotted a dark lanky figure. It wasn't hard, at this time of night hardly any passengers were around.

"Hey."

"Hey!"

He seemed to have taken him by surprise. Kili's eyes were wide as he took in Fili. There was an odd pause for a fraction of a second, before they both opened their arms and embraced.

"It's good to see you," Fili whispered.

"You too."

They broke apart, and Fili grabbed Kili's single suitcase. "This all you've got?"

"Yeah."

They got into the familiar red Land Cruiser. It occurred to Kili that he didn't have a clue where they were headed.

"Where are we going?"

"Well um – there's this place," Fili replied. "That I've, um – been renting."

"Oh, yeah."

"It's quite sweet, just a little bungalow and it's in a good area." Fili was repeating himself, he had already told Kili about it in an email a few weeks ago.

"Uh huh," was all Kili could answer.

Given the lack of traffic it took them surprisingly little time to get there. It was still dark, but the sky was just starting to lighten, suggesting dawn was on its way. Kili could just make out a large garden with the vague shapes of trees beyond the low bungalow.

"We're on the outskirts of Karura forest," Fili told him. "So we get monkeys in the garden. They can be a bit of a pain sometimes, they try to get inside the house and eat the fruit but – hope you don't mind."

Kili shook his head, a small smile on his face.

Fili opened the front door to reveal a small living room with a fireplace and a rather horrible purple sofa in front of it. "That sofa was a cast-off of Bilbo's. I know its awful but it's really comfortable, I promise. And I'm going to get some new covers for it when I've got the time. Sorry I haven't got much furniture yet, I haven't been here that long, only about a month or so. I'm going back to Naivasha next weekend to get some more stuff. And Arnold of course. I left her there, just til everything got settled and sorted and -." Fili closed his mouth to stop him babbling.

"That's okay. It'll be kinda fun eating off crates for a while." Kili grinned. "Although, that sofa is quite ghastly."

"I agree." They regarded the sofa with distaste for a few seconds, then caught eachother's eye and began giggling.

"Come on, I want a tour," Kili demanded.

Fili showed him the little kitchen, which had a nice view over the garden in the daytime, the small toilet leading off from it, before leading him down a small corridor with another bathroom and two bedrooms with attractive wooden floorboards. Each bedroom had a mattress on the floor.

"I haven't bought beds yet," Fili admitted sheepishly, tugging on the end of his ponytail as they surveyed the room Fili was clearly sleeping in, his clothes strewn all over the floor. Fili kicked a pair of his boxers under the wardrobe before Kili could see them, wishing he'd thought to tidy up before he'd left.

"This is lovely," Kili said truthfully. He hadn't failed to notice that the mattresses in both rooms had been made. Did Fili expect him to sleep in the other room?

Fili seemed to be wondering the same thing. Neither of them spoke.

Kili, finally, crossed the room and sat on Fili's mattress. He grinned up at Fili.

"This place is great."

Fili inwardly breathed a sigh of relief. "You can stay here as long as you want."

"So, are you busy these days? Got lots of safaris?"

"Oh. Actually… I'm only working part-time for Tampani now."

"Oh?" This was something Fili hadn't divulged during their cyber conversations – Kili was surprised.

"I'm actually doing a lot more photography. I've got some exhibitions and stuff coming up. I've set one up at the Muthaiga club."

Kili nodded. He'd read about the Muthaiga Club, started during colonial times; he was frankly surprised it was still open, but it apparently was a raging business, with modern middle-class Kenyans, expats and white Kenyans making up its clientele.

"We'll have to go one night and I'll show you."

"I'd love to." Kili yawned and Fili glanced at his watch.

"When did you leave?"

"Mmm… I left my house at about midnight?"

Fili did some quick calculations in his head, working out the time difference. "You've been travelling for over twenty-four hours!"

"Nine hour stopover in Cairo… that was fun."

Fili smiled ruefully. "You flew Egypt? You're a braver man than me."

"Wasn't that bad. Just fucking boring in the airport. Have you ever spent an entire day at Cairo airport? _And _I didn't have an adapter, so all my stuff ran out of battery and I couldn't even charge them." Fili laughed at Kili's grumpy tone.

"You could have brought a book."

"I did, I finished it."

"What was it, _Noddy in Toyland_?"

"_Actually_, it was _The Constant Gardener._" He smiled. "It inspired me. I want to go to Turkana."

"I've never been," Fili admitted.

"We should go." They smiled at eachother for a long second before Kili yawned again and the tension returned.

"Have you got a spare toothbrush I could borrow please? I think I forgot mine."

Fili made a face. "You can't borrow it, you can _have _it – I don't want it back. I'll go find it… umm… yeah."

He went into the bathroom, handing Kili a toothbrush when he re-entered the bedroom a few minutes later. Kili saw he had already changed into some loose stripy pyjama pants and a t-shirt.

"Thanks." He took the toothbrush and went into the bathroom, where he shucked off his jeans and prepared for the night. He would normally have left his clothes and shoes in a pile on the bathroom floor, to be picked up eventually when he finally got sick of the sight of them, but he remembered he was in Fili's house as Fili's guest so he folded them up and placed them neatly at the foot of the bed.

When Fili came back from the kitchen, carrying a bottle of water in case one of them got thirsty during the night, the lights were still on but Kili had already climbed into bed and was cocooned in the covers.

"I hope you're not a sheet whore," he whispered, sliding his legs under the duvet next to him. He flicked the switch next to the bed and darkness suddenly enveloped them.

Fili blinked a few times to get used to it, then lay down, trying to get comfortable on his back. He ached to sleep on his side like he usually did, but he was electrically aware of Kili next to him which posed an obvious problem: if he faced him, Kili might think he was being pushy; if he turned his back on Kili, Kili might think him cold. Neither was ideal.

"You need curtains," Kili's voice suddenly emerged from the darkness.

"I do?"

"Yes. Those blinds are god-ugly. And they're white so they let the light in."

Fili opened his eyes, and sure enough, hovering in the blackness where the window was, there was a distinct square halo shining from the security light outside. He didn't know Kili was so sensitive about light when he was trying to sleep.

"… I can try and pin a towel over it?"

"Oh no, please don't." Kili's voice sounded guilty. "I meant… sometime. Not now."

"Okay," Fili whispered, reaching out in the vague darkness until his hand brushed Kili's. Kili raised his arm off the bed but by the time he could entwine his fingers with Fili's, Fili's hand had gone.

"Night-night," Kili whispered.

"Sleep well," Fili whispered back.


	11. Chapter 11: The Club

**Chapter 11: The Club**

When they woke up late next morning Fili was on his side, facing Kili; Kili was flat on his stomach, elbows bent around his head and looking dead to the world. He had shifted closer and Fili could smell his hair, messy and covering the half of his face that wasn't buried in his pillow; not fresh after twenty-four hours of travelling, but traces of his shampoo still wafted into Fili's nostrils. One tangled chocolate-brown lock quivered from where it was laid over his mouth, in time with his heavy breathing.

He got out of bed, trying hard not to disturb the zombie next to him, but suddenly a loud thumping of the roof made them both jump. Kili jerked awake, blinking stupidly a few times before squinting into the bright light around him.

"What the hell was that?" he demanded, the urgency of his tone ruined by the croak of his voice.

"It's the monkeys. I told you they're annoying."

"You never said they were so _noisy_." Kili listened to the sound of the monkeys feet battering on the corrugated iron roof.

Fili stretched and stood up, deliberately looking anywhere but at Kili or the bed they had just shared.

"You mind cereal and toast for breakfast?"

"That's fine," Kili yawned. He waited til Fili was out of the room before throwing the sheets off himself and standing up, trying to calm the tent in his pants, which had unfortunately decided to make its presence known. It had had nothing to do with Fili (_Nothing! _Kili emphasised, cheeks turning pink), it was just part of being male and having man hormones. He'd been a bit risky, deciding to sleep in Fili's bed (even though nothing had happened of course) on their first night together and he'd completely forgotten this rather unfortunate and awkward part of mornings.

When he had finally composed himself and followed Fili to the kitchen, he was thoroughly unsurprised to see Fili with one of his usual kikois slung over his boxers, already eating.

"Help yourself," he garbled around a mouthful of toast and marmalade.

"Got much to do today?" Kili asked pleasantly, attempting to decide between Weetabix and cornflakes, ultimately choosing not to compromise and pouring a hefty serving of each into his bowl.

"Not much, just a few errands. You?"

"Unpacking, I guess. At two I need to be somewhere to meet my new boss. I'm starting on Wednesday."

"Ah. You need a lift?"

"Nah, it's fine. I'll get a taxi."

"Okay."

Fili's heart was beating fast as he scraped the remnants of his toast into the bin and laid his plate in the sink.

"We should go out tonight," he said airily as he let the water run, waiting for it to heat up. "I haven't got much food… or furniture." Fili wasn't sure where this weird blasé persona had come from, whose nonchalance seemed almost aloof.

"That sounds good," Kili replied passively.

"Maybe the Muthaiga club? You've never been."

"I'd love to go."

Fili turned and saw Kili bent over his bowl, a small smile on his face. He wasn't entirely sure it was from his words rather than the bowl of food in front of him, but he was prepared to bet it was the former. Hardly believing his daring, he leaned over and stole a cornflake from Kili's bowl. The look of outrage he received had him laughing out loud.

That broke the tension, and finally they were back to chatting like old friends. They returned to the bedroom, and Kili crouched down to open his suitcase for the first time.

"I didn't bring much household stuff," he told Fili. "We have to do a house-shop soon, this place is looking _bare_!"

"Yeah. You may have a point." Fili craned his head and peered into Kili's overstuffed suitcase, still bearing its stigmatising 'OVERWEIGHT' sticker. "Kili!"

"What?" Kili replied defensively, hunching over to hide the vast amounts of wagon-wheels and penguins crammed into every available space in the suitcase. "A man's gotta eat!"

"You can get biscuits here too," Fili reminded him, giving him a punch on the arm.

It was only after he'd started to unpack that Kili realised he'd left his favourite pillowcase behind. But he didn't seem to care.

…

Fili was still fretting over what he should wear when he heard the front door slam and Kili's distinctive footsteps heading towards the bedroom. He hastily threw on a shirt over the pair of smart trousers he had decided on, and tried to look chilled and not as if he had spent the better part of the last twenty minutes ransacking his wardrobe when Kili strode in.

"Fili, it went so well, I – oh, you look nice."

"It's a posh place, you'll need to dress up," Fili told him. Kili appraised him, looking impressed.

"You look really nice."

Fili glanced in the mirror and saw he had picked a dark blue shirt that his mother had bought him a while ago – he had never worn it with this particular pair of slate-grey chinos before, but if Kili liked it, then hell, it was staying. He smiled.

"Help yourself to any clothes if you need them. Remember, it's pretty posh." He left the room to do something about his hair in the bathroom, trying to stop the buzzing feeling that had arisen in him like a daft adolescent at Kili's compliment.

Kili, it turned out, scrubbed up nicely as well, in a white shirt and dinner jacket of Fili's that had a colourful inner lining made from traditional Kenyan kanga fabric. The drive to the Club wasn't long, ten minutes through lush green neighbourhoods with quaint houses and cottages peeking out from behind wild bougainvillea hedges, electric fences and razorwire-topped gates.

"This area is called Muthaiga," Fili told him. "A lot of the houses up here were built by colonial families. This is one of the nicest parts of the city, apart from Karen, I guess."

They pulled up to an ostentatious looking gate manned by four or five guards. They asked Fili a few questions, then let them in, driving past a huge building with pillars, white-framed windows and ivy crawling up the pink-painted walls.

"That's the club. Those are the rooms; people who live upcountry like my dad stay here when they come to Nairobi."

They got out and walked to the entrance. Fili had been right, Kili thought, watching the other people he could see milling around the lobby, all of whom were smartly-dressed, while Fili asked the head waiter for a table for two.

"Aren't we eating?" he asked as Fili steered them towards the bar, hundreds of bottles of the poshest liquors he'd ever seen gleaming on lit-up glass shelves behind it.

"Yes, they'll let us know when our table's ready." Kili wasn't familiar with this set-up; in his experience, when you went to a restaurant, you walked up to the nearest free table and simply ordered. He wasn't quite used to having waiters waiting on him hand and foot, being _called_ when your table was ready.

"Didn't you say you had an exhibition up here?"

"Mm-hm." Fili turned to the bartender. "Do you like red or white?"

"Stop trying to distract me," Kili teased. "I want to see it."

Fili accepted two glasses and pushed one into Kili's hand. "If you're not a fan of red, that's your own fault for ignoring my question. And if you really want to see it, it's in one of the rooms off here…" Fili gestured him to follow.

Fili led him outside and past a glowing swimming pool through a glass door to one of the exhibition rooms, wood-panelled walls lined with photos.

"My dad has lots of contacts here so it wasn't too difficult to ask them for a spot. One of the only things my dad is good for." Fili scowled, but Kili missed it, too busy staring at Fili's photos. They looked even better than they had done the first time he had seen them, up in Fili's bedroom at Naivasha.

"These are great, Fee," he said softly, smiling.

Fili smiled awkwardly and scratched the back of his head.

"You shouldn't be so shy about them," Kili chided. "They're really good."

"Thanks." He grinned, almost in spite of himself.

Kili thought he looked so adorable he was on the brink of going over and kissing him stupid before: "Mr Baggins?" A waiter peered around the door and inclined his head politely. "Your table is ready."

"Thank you."

Kili walked into the dining room and immediately felt intimidated. The arched ceiling, the stark white tablecloths, the wooden chairs so highly varnished he could have checked his own reflection in them, the sumptuously upholstered chairs and the expensive-looking plants, the antique vases and rich curtains: all of them made him feel intensely scruffy. He felt particularly conscious of his shoes, unpolished and a little scuffed, and his hair, brushed nicely but nonetheless loose around his ears and probably all over the place. His nerves were only made worse when Fili was immediately heralded by a group of people at a table across the room, diamonds glinting on the men's cufflinks and pearls dripping from the women's ears.

Kili fixed a smile on his face as Fili introduced him (he forgot all their names almost instantly) and let his mind wander to the butterflies in his stomach as Fili made small-talk about colonial rich-people things, like horses and golf and balloon safaris. It was hard to believe in this atmosphere, where Fili clearly felt completely at home, that Fili had ever made fun of his hunter wellies and barbour jackets in England. The nerve…

He was brought abruptly down to earth when the ruddy-faced man with a waxed moustache suddenly asked him a question.

"Do you play golf?"

Kili was startled by the absurdity of the question. "Ah, no," he replied politely.

"Polo?"

Kili wanted to laugh out loud. "No," he said, hoping his voice didn't display any of the mirth he felt bubbling inside him. "I don't know how to ride, I'm afraid."

The man looked puzzled, but turned back to Fili. "So Philip, I must ask you how the rose farm is doing – next time you go up there, please send my best regards to your dear uncle. Also, I've got a nephew from England coming out on his gap year in July, I was wondering if you could be a _star_ and set him up with something…"

After a few more minutes, Fili excused them and they made their way to their table, mercifully hidden from view by an intricately carved room divider. Kili allowed the grin he'd been trying to suppress for the last few minutes erupt over his face.

"If you want to learn how to play golf, I could teach you. There's a golf club next door." Fili looked at him confusedly. "What?"

"Nothing."

A waiter appeared with two more glasses of wine and two leather-bound folders.

"Go crazy," Fili grinned, noting how Kili's eyes widened at the menu - oysters and duck and truffles and porcini mushrooms…

…

"So, what was your favourite part of the meal?"

Kili scrunched up his face and thought: it was a tough tie between his steak with asparagus and truffle sauce and the various sweet treats he had picked up from the dessert trolley (needless to say, he had gone back to the dessert trolley for seconds). But then again, the risotto with porcini mushrooms and pancetta Fili had ordered (which Kili had sampled when Fili was in the bathroom) was also a strong contender. The room itself had also been stunning, when Kili had had enough wine to feel appreciative instead of intimidated. But really, he knew the answer.

"Being with you," he said quietly.

It wasn't the answer Fili was expecting. His eyes widened a little but stayed glued on the road. After a few moments he stretched out his left hand and Kili took it.

The automatic security light blinked on as they pulled up to the bungalow. Kili grabbed Fili's hand again as they walked up to the front door.

"Isn't this the bit where we'd kiss on a normal date?" Kili asked.

"Yes, but you're living with me. So I think we can wait til we get somewhere more comfortable."

Inside, Kili collapsed onto the purple sofa. "You're right, it is comfy," Kili mused aloud as Fili sat down next to him. Kili kicked off his shoes and wound his arms around Fili's side, cuddling into him. Fili dragged his fingers through Kili's hair.

They lay there, nestled together, not saying anything for a while. They could have cut the tension with a toothpick, Fili pondered. Finally he shifted, pulling Kili up with him. "I'll do it then," he said, and pressed his lips to Kili's.

"Romantic, you are," Kili huffed, but Fili didn't let him talk anymore. Kili didn't mind a bit. He didn't mind when Fili laid back, pulling him on top of him, or when he started pushing Kili's jacket off his shoulders. He eagerly returned the favour, but when he went for the buttons on Fili's shirt, Fili's hands stilled him.

"Do you – we should go easy," he murmured.

Kili was about to point out that they were already living together, which hardly counted as _going easy, _but refrained from being facetious for the moment. "_Pole pole_," he whispered and Fili's smile mimicked his own as their lips connected again. It was good, better than good, living up to all his wild daydreams and dazed fantasies. They snuggled into the sofa again, the late hour and the wine catching up with them and Kili thought his heart could burst with happiness.


	12. Chapter 12: The Birthday Party

**Chapter 12: The Birthday Party**

"C'mon, Ori_, please_," Kili pleaded.

Ori ("_Orian!_" he reminded Kili countless times, to apparently no avail) sighed and rolled his eyes. "He's _your _boyfriend Kili, don't you think it's cheating if you ask me to cook for you?"

"But it's his birthday," Kili whined. "And I want to do something nice. He says he doesn't want anything, but I bet he always does that, and I don't want to take him out for dinner because that's too predictable."

"So your solution is ask _me_ to come over and help you cook?"

"If you knew what disasters happened with me in the kitchen, you wouldn't think it's such an unreasonable request."

Noreen huffed. "For God's sake! Ori if you don't do it, so help me god _I'll _do it just to make you both shut up!"

Kili beamed "Nori, you're the best!"

"No problem," she groused. She looked daggers at Ori, who quailed. "Some friend you are."

"I'm not good at cooking either," Ori mumbled, though everyone knew that wasn't true – he had worked in a bakery before he'd decided he'd rather go into NGO work and moved out here. Indeed, his 'Beginning-of-the-week Brownies' were the only part of Mondays that were bearable.

"Why don't you throw him a party?" Ori asked thoughtfully.

Kili's eyes widened. "That's a _brilliant _idea!"

Ori looked surprised. "Is it?"

"Yes!"

It had been a fantastic two months. Kili enjoyed his work more than he'd even dreamed he would; he'd met lots of new friends, including fellow intern Ori, the closet genius, and rambunctious Noreen, his mentor, who, having worked for UNEP for five years now, had taken the two interns under her wing. He and Ori were the general factotums of the office, most of their existence consisting of running around doing errands for more important people. While he enjoyed dressing up in a suit to go to the office every day (there was no feeling like the smugness that came from being able to work a photocopy machine like a pro), he was itching to get down to some more hands-on fieldwork after Christmas.

At home, he and Fili had fallen into life together as if they'd been born for it. Apart from the times Fili had to go away for a few days or a week to do safaris, they'd spent almost every waking and sleeping minute together. It was his birthday in a week's time, and Kili had been dying to do something special; a surprise party sounded like exactly what he needed.

Kili's beam suddenly fell short. "Except that I don't know any of his friends." He waved that thought off – he could easily wheedle those details out of Fili later – and began chattering with the others about their plans for the weekend, shutting up abruptly and pretending to be busy when their boss sauntered suspiciously into the room.

…

"What do you want for your birthday?"

"Nothing."

"Filiiii, don't be like that."

Fili turned reproachful blue eyes on him. "Like what?"

"Everyone loves birthdays."

"I don't. Why should I celebrate getting older? This year, I'll be twenty-seven. In three years, I'll be thirty."

"Thirty isn't the end of the world," Kili told him, head-butting him in the arm. He swivelled his body around from where they were sitting on the sofa together, hanging his legs off the arm while he pillowed his head in Fili's lap. "How about.. we get together with some friends and go out for dinner or something?"

"Nah. I want to stay in."

"Alright, we can stay in. Who do you want to invite?"

"No one."

It seemed his efforts to wheedle the names of Fili's friends out of him were doomed. "Seriously though. Who do you want to see?"

"Stop being annoying."

"Come _on_!" Kili groaned, lifting his head and thumping it back down on Fili's lap in frustration. Fili's sudden intake of breath had him cocking his head to the side and Fili gasped again. The edges of Kili's lips quirked inevitably upwards in a wicked smile.

"Am I bothering you?"

"No."

"Are you sure?"

"Mm-hm."

Kili shifted his head again, rubbing it gently around a very certain spot and Fili's thighs suddenly tensed beneath him. Kili's grin grew wider.

"Are you sure you're sure?"

"Positive," Fili gasped.

Kili rolled over slowly and coursed his hands along Fili's thighs. He slowly turned his head and pressed an open-mouthed kiss to the crotch of Fili's jeans.

Kili didn't think he'd ever seen Fili move so fast as Fili crushed their mouths together and yanked him to their bedroom.

…

Given that Kili's attempts to get the names of his friends out Fili had failed so spectacularly (well, he'd been successful, but in quite a different way), there was only one option left.

"H'llo?"

"Hey… Bard."

"Hi. Uh – who is this?"

"This is Kili."

"Kili… oh yeah. Fili's friend, right?"

"Right."

Kili cleared his throat awkwardly. He'd only met Bard once – when Fili had decided that, much as he loved Kili, they were both getting cabin fever cooped up in the house in eachothers' loving arms, and they'd gone out for a drink with an old school friend of his. Bard had turned up with eyes the colour of strawberries and a dopey expression on his face that left no mystery to what he had been doing just before he arrived. Kili hadn't disliked him, but they hadn't exactly warmed to eachother and he'd felt awkward all night; he had been surprised to hear that _this_ was one of Fili's best and oldest friends, though his surprise had ebbed as he saw how well they seemed to get along.

He decided to get straight to the point. "It's Fili's birthday soon and I wanted to throw him a surprise party."

"Oh. That's pretty cool."

"Yeah." Kili heard a slow, drawn out intake of breath and faltered over his words. "Are – are you smoking?"

"Yeah. So?" Kili was baffled for a second but Bard saved him the need for comment as he continued. "This party then? M'I invited?"

"Uh, yeah, of course. But the thing is, I don't really know who else to invite. I don't really know any of Fili's friends."

"Okay…" Kili could hear the cogs of Bard's brain working sluggishly as he pieced the conversation together. "So… you want me to call some people?"

"That would be great." He told him the date and time and when he hung up the phone, Kili found he was nervous. He'd made his own friends at work, but apart from Bard, he hadn't met any of Fili's. While he normally loved meeting new people, the thought of meeting Fili's friends, most of whom would have known him since they were toddlers, terrified him just a little.

…

The plan was such: Fili went into work on Tuesdays. So it was lucky that his birthday was on a Wednesday – on Tuesday, Kili would call him and try to delay his return by asking him to go shopping before he came back, giving people enough time to arrive from their own work and sneak into the house. Then, at around seven o' clock, Fili would return, to have hoards of his friends pop out and surprise him. The cake would be served at midnight, and then everyone would go home.

It was a simple plan, Kili thought, but it was surprising how some people didn't seem to get it. Including the ever-oblivious Fili.

"_Frankfurters? Kili, what the hell is this shopping list, we do not need frankfurters!_" Fili moaned from the other end of the phone.

"Yes we do, I like them," Kili retorted, hastily covering the microphone as more people banged through the front door. The house was filling rapidly.

"_What was that?_"

"Huh? What? Oh that was just… Noreen. Stapling something. Rather enthusiastically."

Fili had evidently gone back to perusing the list. "_Bread, beer… Wine? Are we out of wine?"_

"Uh, I guess so. I wrote it on the list didn't I?"

"_Can't you check? Aren't you at the house?"_

_"_No, I'm – stuck in traffic," Kili invented. The surprise would be better if he thought no one was at home at all when he arrived.

"_And Cheetos? Cheetos?! I'll buy crisps, but you should know I am NOT allowing Cheetos over my threshold…"_

Kili heard the sound of another car, made his excuses and hung up.

The small living room was now buzzing with people: Fili had a lot of friends. Bard had been among the first to arrive, with a woman called Magdalene, who had taken to Kili at once. She was tanned with long dark hair and sparkling eyes; Kili liked her immediately, and was grateful to her for taking it upon herself to introduce him to all the guests as they arrived.

"Can you remind people to park their cars out back so Fili doesn't see them when he comes in?" he asked her, who nodded just as his phone began ringing again. Glancing at the screen, he saw it was Fili and hastily ducked into the next room.

"_Hey, do you want me to pick up pizza?"_

"No, it'll be fine, we have enough food."

"_But I don't feel like cooking_."

"Nah, really, it'll be good, I'll fish something out of the freezer."

"_Ok_. _FUCK YOU!"_ he suddenly shouted, and Kili heard the sounds of tooting on the other end of the line.

"Are you driving?" Kili demanded, panicked.

"_Yes. Asshole nearly swerved into me!"_

"I'm not surprised, you're on your phone!" Kili retorted, heart starting to hammer. "Get off the phone! Are you on your way home?"

"_Yes_."

"Okay, Fili, I've got to go," he said, trying not to sound breathless. "I'll see you later, bye!"

As soon as he was sure the phone had disconnected he ran into the living room, where people had already started cracking open beers and catching up, loud laughter and chatter almost drowning out his voice as he made his announcement.

"Everyone!" he shouted over the noise. "Fili's on his way _now_!"

"Turn off the lights, everyone get into position!" Magdalene yelled.

The lights went out but the low roar of conversation continued. Kili attempted shushing the crowd; Magdalene had more success as she bellowed "QUIET!"

The room, at last fell silent, apart from the occasional spurt of titters or the clink of a bottle against something.

"How long –" Bard began but just as he started speaking, they heard the rumble of an engine outside. Someone began giggling uncontrollably. "_Shh_!" several people insisted.

"It won't actually be a surprise if everyone doesn't shut up!" Kili hissed.

The sound of a car door opening, then closing. The sound of something heavy being put down outside the front door and the jingle of keys. Kili waited with bated breath.

Fili's silhouette appeared against the hazy lilac of the falling twilight, and he reached to click on a lamp.

The sheer force of the yell that greeted him as he clicked on the light made him stumble backwards and sent the shopping bag in his hand flying.

"JESUS!" he cursed. "I thought I was being fucking _burgled_!"

The look of terror hadn't completely vanished from his eyes as people began showering him with greetings and shoving presents in his hands. Several hugs later he seemed recovered, and he found Kili in the kitchen, having retrieved the wayward shopping bag and starting to unpack it. The bottles of wine and six-packs of beer he had bought less than an hour ago were already on a table in the living room, being rapidly depleted.

"You had me shopping for my own party?" he said accusingly as Kili pulled out several packets of crisps and began decanting them into bowls.

"Mhm. Shame about the Cheetos though." Kili gave him a grin. "Don't kill me. I know you said you didn't want a party but I strongly suspect you didn't mean it."

"Maybe," Fili allowed, pulling Kili into a hug. "I love you."

It was the first time either of them had said it. They froze for a second, relishing the moment.

"I love you too," Kili replied quietly, wrapping his arms around Fili's waist and pressing a soft kiss to his neck. "Now go see your guests. Some of them say they haven't seen you for ages!"

Kili watched Fili catching up with his old pals and even did some socialising of his own. Possibly due to the fact that everyone was getting speedily tipsier by the second, Fili's friends were extremely friendly. Some of them were practically family, others he had known from school, and others were people he worked or had worked with. They made him laugh with tales about the bush, Nairobi life and the old Fili (Fili at fifteen had dreadlocks and a _tongue piercing! _Kili's heart skipped a beat). They were very different from the people he'd met in his own NGO scene, but he liked them nonetheless. Bard and a few others disappeared for about fifteen minutes into the dark garden, returning very giggly, and fervently falling upon the crackers and dip.

Fili caught up with Kili a while later, an empty wine glass dangling from his fingers.

"You need a refill," Kili declared, grabbing a bottle.

"I've lost count of the number of times it has been refilled," he admitted, smiling. "How are you doing? You could have invited some of your friends, you know."

"I'm fine!" Kili beamed. "I can't believe I was so scared to meet them. They're lovely."

"You're daft," Fili giggled. He kissed Kili on the cheek. "Still. I like your friends too."

"You do?!"

"Yeah. How come they're not here?"

"It's your party."

"Call Orian. See if he and Noreen are free, tell them to come over."

"Okay." Fili gave Kili a happy kiss and Kili went outside to make his phone call. Twenty minutes later, the doorbell rang, revealing Ori and Noreen, clutching a bottle of champagne between them.

"Happy birthday Phil!"

"You're just in time," Kili told them. "We're just about to do the cake." As he said it, the lights clicked off and everyone's voices began chanting "_Happy Birthday to _you…" and Magdalene emerged from the kitchen, a laden tray in her hands, the blazing candles on the cake casting an orange glow on Fili's face as he beamed.

The cake was cut, the various bottles of bubbly people brought shared out. Soon birthday cards dotted the mantelpiece and Fili, after about a minute's persuasion, tore open his presents, thanking everyone and laughing at some of the things he received.

"Really Bard? A mankini?"

Bard chuckled dazedly around his third piece of cake. "Gag gifts are funny."

It was another few hours, and amidst groans of "I've got _work_ tomorrow!" the last of the guests finally filtered out of the door. Fili opened the gate for them, waved them all off, and returned to the bungalow, closing the front door behind him. The house was oddly quiet, apart from the background noise of an iPod on the speakers, turned down low, and a chinking of glass.

Fili followed the sound into the living room and saw Kili was gathering the various beer bottles and wine glasses scattered around the room.

"Can't that wait til morning?" Fili yawned, rubbing his face tiredly.

"I suppose," Kili consented, dropping the bottles in his hand into a cardboard box to be taken to the bottle bank tomorrow. He smiled as Fili made his way over to him, wrapped his arms around his middle and started nuzzling his neck.

"Thank you."

"You're welcome."

"Really. Thank you. I had such a nice time."

"Good." Fili's kisses weren't quite so coordinated when he was drunk, his lips were a little fumbly, but Kili just thought he was adorable. "Guess what?"

"Do I actually have to guess or can you just tell me?"

"We're going to Naivasha this weekend. Bilbo says he wants to celebrate with you too."

"Aw." Fili's grin was tipsy but genuine. "That'll be nice."

"Yeah. We haven't seen him since I got here!"

"Mm. He loves you. And Frodo loves you. And Tauriel loves you. And I love you most of all." He tried to nose his way into a kiss but Kili's laughter stopped him.

"I've never heard you be so sappy. In fact, I've never heard _anyone_ be so sappy –"

"Shut up, birthday boy wants a kiss."

Kili complied, then tugged on Fili's wrist. "I didn't show you my present yet."

"Mm, I like the sound of this," Fili said with a leer as Kili pulled him to their bedroom. He stopped short in the doorway, staring. "Aw, you bought a bed!"

"Isn't it nice?" Kili beamed, going to sit on it and bouncing a little on the mattress. "I got it from one of the carvers on the side of the street."

"Oh Kee…" Fili sighed. He admired the bedframe – it was made of ebony wood and carved with various animals and spiky designs. It was very attractive.

"I was going to buy a bed eventually," he said guiltily, making his way over to sit down next to Kili.

"It's my house too. And I wasn't sure when you'd have the time. And I was kindof sick of sleeping on mattress on the floor – I know the Japanese do it but it's not for me."

"Thank you. I love it."

"Happy birthday. I love you."

Kili finished his sentence with another kiss, one that eventually had them migrating to a horizontal position. They were both too drunk to do much, and began giggling when their teeth started clacking, Kili laughing harder as Fili struggled with the buttons on his shirt.

"Maybe we should leave the rest of this for another time," Kili managed to utter between his giggles.

"Maybe. Maybe tomorrow. Sometime soon," Fili breathed. Kili felt the hairs on his neck stand on end slightly.

Fili abandoned his mission and rolled onto his back, entwining their fingers.

"You were great, for making such an effort with my friends. I can tell they really liked you."

"That's a relief," Kili sighed.

"You're so hot."

Kili laughed abruptly. "That came out of the blue."

"I mean it. When you're talking about your work, your passions… it's really sexy. You're so clever. I adore that in you."

Kili could feel his face colouring. "Thanks," he mumbled, then continued in a lighter tone of voice. "It's your birthday, aren't I supposed to be complimenting you?"

"You're the best thing that's ever happened to me, Kili."

"You know what I said before? About the sappy thing? Well _that _just trumped it."

"You can't take a compliment."

"You're one to talk."

"I still love you, though."

"I love you more."


End file.
